LIBRARY 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

SANTA  BARBARA 

PRESENTED  BY 
GERALD  HOWLAND 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE 
OF  ENGRAVING 


A  SPECIALIST'S  STORY  ABOUT 
FINE  PRINTS 


BY 

FREDERICK  KEPPEL 


1  The  Noble  human  labour  of  the  Engraver  "  —  JOHN  RUSKIN 


WITH  262  ILLUSTRATIONS  SHOWING 
THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  ART  FROM 
THE  YEAR  1465  TO  THE  YEAR  1910 


THIRD  EDITION 


THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  1910,  by 
THE  BAKER  AND  TAYLOB  COMPANT 


Published,  October,  1910 
Reprinted,  December,  1910 


The  Plimpton  Prett  Norwood  Mass.  U.  8.  A. 


PREFACE 

\\  7HILE  this  book  mainly  consists  of  matter 
W  now  published  for  the  first  time,  it  also 
contains  reprints  of  the  author's  articles  from 
Harper's  Magazine,  The  Century,  Scribner's,  The 
Outlook,  and  other  periodicals. 

I  desire  to  give  my  hearty  thanks  to  the  propri- 
etors of  these  magazines  for  the  kind  permission 
which  enables  me  to  reprint  articles  which  are 
their  property  and  no  longer  mine. 

A  book  which  contains  the  collected  writings  of 
a  lifetime  —  and  nearly  all  on  one  subject  — 
must  of  necessity  comprise  some  repetitions.  In 
defense  of  such  repetitions  I  may  justify  myself 
by  quoting  a  line  from  the  veracious  author  of 
"Alice  in  Wonderland": 

"What  I  tell  you  three  times  —  is  true!" 

F.  K. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER  —  CHIEFLY  PERSONAL    .      .  xix 

THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 1 

SOME  MASTERPIECES  OF  THE  OLD  ENGRAVERS     ,      .  25 

FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  LINE  ENGRAVINGS     ....  32 

DRAWINGS  BY  OLD  MASTERS 36 

SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS 38 

SAMUEL  COUSINS,  R.  A 58 

THE  MODERN  DISCIPLES  OF  REMBRANDT  ....  66 

PERSONAL  SKETCHES  OF  SOME  FAMOUS  ETCHERS  .  79 

ORIGINAL  ETCHINGS  BY  QUEEN  VICTORIA     .      .     .     ,  104 

CHARLES  JACQUE    107 

JEAN-FRANC,  ois  MILLET 112 

a.  Sketch  of  his  life 112 

b.  As  an  Etcher 120 

A  NOTABLE  MASTERPIECE  BY  MILLET 124 

SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN 130 

CHARLES  MERYON 154 

MAXIME  LALANNE  ^ 162 

WHISTLER  AS  AN  ETCHER 165 

ONE  DAY  WITH  WHISTLER 181 

BRACQUEMOND  AND  BUHOT 202 

ALPHONSE  LEGROS 206 

EVERT  VAN  MUYDEN 212 

JOSEPH  PENNELL 222 

a.  Etcher,  Illustrator,  Author 222 

b.  Mr.  Pennell  as  a  Printer 237 

c.  Mr.   Pennell's  Etchings  of  New  York   "Sky 

Scrapers" 240 

D.  Y.  CAMERON 243 

v 


vi  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

HENRI  FANTIN-LATOUR 247 

THE  ILLUSTRATORS  OF  " PUNCH" 253 

CHARLES  KEENE 259 

GEORGE  DU  MAURIER 262 

WHAT  ETCHINGS  ARE 266 

PITFALLS  FOR  TRANSLATORS 281 

A  CHAPTER  OF  VERSE 287 

BIBLIOGRAPHY         302 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PORTRAIT  OF  FREDERICK  KEPPEL     ....  Frontispiece 

PAGE 

PORTRAIT  OF  JAMES  L.  CLAGHORN xxvi 

MR.  CLAGHORN'S  PRINT  ROOM,  PHILADELPHIA      .      .  xxvii 

THE  PRINT  ROOM  OF  THE  BRITISH  MUSEUM,  LONDON  xxvii 

Schongauer,  Martin. 

THE  ANGEL  OF  THE  ANNUNCIATION     ....  2 

THE  NATIVITY 3 

Dtirer,  Albrecht. 

THE  NATIVITY 4 

THE  KNIGHT,  DEATH,  AND  THE  DEVIL     ...  5 

MELANCHOLIA 6 

ADAM  AND  EVE 7 

Lucas  van  Ley  den. 

THE  HOLY  FAMILY 8 

Beham,  Barthel. 

THE  EMPEROR  CHARLES  V 9 

Rembrandt  van  Ryn. 

PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT  LEANING  UPON  A  SABRE  10 

CLEMENT  DE  JONGHE 11 

THE  THREE  TREES 12 

THE  THREE  COTTAGES IS 

BEGGARS  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  A  HOUSE  ....  14 

Nanteuil,  Robert. 

POMPONE  DE  BELLIEVRE 15 

After  the  painting  by  Charles  le  Brim. 

HENRI- AUGUSTE  DE  LOMENIE  DE  BRIENNE    .      .  16 

Engraved  from  Nanteuil's  design  from  life. 


viii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Masson,  Antoine. 

GUILLAUME    DE    BRisACiER    ("The  Gray-Haired 

Man") 17 

After  the  painting  by  Nicolas  Mignard. 
Edelinck,  Gerard. 

PHILIPPE  DE  CHAMPAIGNE 18 

After  the  painting  by  Philippe  de  Champaigne. 

NATHANAEL  DILGERUS 19 

Drevet,  Pierre. 

PHILIP  V,  KING  or  SPAIN 20 

After  the  painting  by  Hyacinthe  Rigaud. 
Drevet,  Pierre  Imbert. 

JACQUES  BENIGNE  BOSSUET 21 

After  the  painting  by  Hyacinthe  Rigaud. 
Wille,  Johann  Georg. 

ABEL  FRA^OIS  POISSON  DE  VANDIERES,  MARQUIS 

DE  MARIGNY 22 

After  the  painting  by  Jean  Louis  Tocque. 
Bervic,  Charles  Clement. 

Louis  XVI 23 

After  the  painting  by  A.  F.  Callet. 
THE  CARRYING-OFF  OF  DEJANEIRA  BY  THE  CEN- 
TAUR NESSUS 24 

After  the  painting  by  Guido  Reni. 
Desnoyers,  Auguste  Boucher. 

NAPOLEON  THE  GREAT 25 

After  the  painting  by  F.  Gerard. 
Miiller,  Friedrich. 

SAINT  JOHN  THE  EVANGELIST 26 

After  the  painting  by  Domenichino. 
Longhi,  Giuseppe. 

THE  RECLINING  MAGDALEN 27 

After  the  painting  by  Correggio. 
Rosaspina,  Francesco. 

THE  DANCE  OF  THE  CUPIDS  AND  THE  CARRYING 

AWAY  OF  PROSERPINE 28 

After  the  painting  by  Francesco  Albani. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  ix 

PAGE 

Toschi,  Paolo. 

MADONNA  DELLA  SCALA 29 

After  the  painting  by  Correggio. 
Strange,  Sir  Robert. 

CHARLES  THE  FIRST,  KING  OF  ENGLAND       .      .       30 
After  the  painting  by  Sir  Anthony  Van  Dyck. 

Buhot,  Felix. 

THE  BURIAL  OF  THE  BURIN 31 

Original  etching. 
Sharp,  William. 

THE  DOCTORS  OF  THE  CHURCH 32 

After  the  painting  by  Guido  Reni. 
Woollett,  William. 

PHAETON 33 

After  the  painting  by  Richard  Wilson. 

ROMAN  EDIFICES  IN  RUINS 34 

After  the  painting  by  Claude  Lorraine, 
(a)  The  etching. 
(6)  The  finished  engraving. 
Earlom,  Richard. 

A  FRUIT  PIECE 35 

A  FLOWER  PIECE 35 

After  the  paintings  by  Jan  van  Huysum. 
Visscher,  Cornells. 

STUDY  OF  A  BOY'S  HEAD 36 

From  the  original  drawing. 
Rembrandt  van  Ryn. 

THE  BEHEADING  OF  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST   ...       37 

From  the  original  drawing. 
Watson,  James. 

PORTRAIT  OF  SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS  ....       40 

After  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 
Doughty,  William. 

THE  HONORABLE  AUGUSTUS  KEPPEL  ....       41 
After  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 


x  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAQK 

Doughty,  William. 

DR.  SAMUEL  JOHNSON 44 

After  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 
Marchi,  Giuseppe. 

OLIVER  GOLDSMITH 45 

After  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 
Bartolozzi,  Francesco. 

THAIS 48 

After  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 
Wiikin,  Charles. 

LADY  COCKBTJRN  AND  HER  CHILDREN       ...       49 

After  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 
Fisher,  Richard. 

LADY  ELIZABETH  KEPPEL 52 

After  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 
Bartolozzi,  Francesco. 

LADY  ELIZABETH  FOSTER 53 

After  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 

Waltner,  Charles. 

PORTRAIT  OF  SAMUEL  COUSINS 60 

After  the  painting  by  Frank  Holl. 

Cousins,  Samuel. 

MASTER  LAMBTON 61 

After  the  painting  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence. 

Palmer,  Samuel. 

THE  RISING  MOON 66 

THE  EARLY  PLOUGHMAN 66 

Daubigny,  Charles  Franqois. 

AUTUMN  IN  THE  MORVAN 67 

Cows  IN  A  POOL 67 

CROWS  PERCHING  IN  A  TREE 68 

THE  MARSH  WITH  STORKS 68 

Corot,  J.  B.  C. 

ENVIRONS  OF  ROME 69 

SOUVENIR  OF  ITALY 69 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xi 

PAOX 

Appian,  Adolphe. 

UNE  MARE 70 

SOURCE  OF  THE  ALBARINE 71 

Gravesande,  Charles  Storm  van's. 

THE  CATHEDRAL  OF  DORDRECHT,  HOLLAND  72 

ON  THE  VECHT 73 

LANDING  OF  THE  HERRING  FLEET       ....  73 

Lalanne,  Maxime. 

THE  ENVIRONS  OF  PARIS 74 

THE  BANKS  OF  THE  THAMES 75 

THE  CANAL  AT  PONT-SAINTE-MAXENCE   ...  75 

Tissot,  Jacques  Joseph. 

OCTOBER 76 

MAVOURNEEN 77 

Plait,  Charles  A. 

BUTTERMILK  CHANNEL 78 

WlLLJAMSBURGH 78 

Parrish,  Stephen. 

Low  TIDE,  BAY  OF  FUNDY 79 

FISHERMEN'S  HOUSES,  CAPE  ANN 79 

Moran,  Peter. 

THE  PASSING  STORM 80 

AN  AUGUST  DAY 80 

Manley,  Thomas  R. 

THE  LOCUST  GROVE 81 

NOVEMBER 81 

Gilbert,  Achille. 

LA  SORTIE 82 

After  the  painting  by  Charles  Jacque. 

Lafond,  Paul. 

UNDER  THE  OLD  OAKS 83 

After  the  painting  by  Charles  Jacque. 

Jacque,  Frederic. 

LE  RETOUR 83 

After  the  painting  by  Charles  Jacque. 


xii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Legros,  Alphonse. 

CARDINAL  MANNING 84 

PROCESSION  IN  A  SPANISH  CHURCH     ....       85 
THE  DEATH  OF  THE  VAGABOND 86 

JongJdnd,  Johann  Barthold. 

THE  TOWN  OF  MAASLINS 87 

THE  PORT  OF  ANTWERP 87 

Bracquemond,  Felix. 

THE  COMING  STORM        88 

TEAL 88 

THE  BATHER 89 

LAPWING  AND  TEAL 89 

Buhot,  Felix. 

A  JETTY  IN  ENGLAND 90 

THE  GEESE 91 

THE  COUNTRY  NEIGHBORS 91 

THE  CAB  STAND 92 

Flameng,  Leopold. 

PORTRAIT  OF  SHAKESPEARE 93 

From    the    Chandos    painting    now    in    the 
National  Portrait  Gallery,  London. 

Rajon,  Paul. 

ALFRED,  LORD  TENNYSON 94 

Etched  by  Rajon  from  his  own  design  from  life. 

Waltner,  Charles. 

THE  PHILOSOPHER 95 

After  the  painting  by  Rembrandt. 

Zorn,  Anders  L. 

Miss  EMMA  RASSMUSSEN 96 

KESTI 96 

OSCAR  II,  KING  OF  SWEDEN     ......       97 

AT  THE  PIANO:  Miss  ANNA  BURNETT      ...       97 

Fitton,  Hedley. 

THE  ROSE  WINDOW,  NOTRE  DAME,  PARIS    .     .       98 

Backer,  Otto  H. 

INTERIOR  OF  ST.  MARK'S,  VENICE       ....       99 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xiii 

Webster,  Herman  A.  PAOE 

NOTRE  DAME  DBS  ANDELYS 100 

COUR  NORMANDE 101 

BUTTER  MARKET,  BRUGES 101 

MacLaughlan,  D.  Shaw. 

THE  CYPRESS  GROVE 102 

PONTE  TICINO 103 

THE  CERTOSA,  PAVIA 103 

Queen  Victoria. 

PORTRAIT  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 104 

From    the    original    etching    by    her,    dated 
November  18,  1840. 

RETURNING  FROM  THE  DEER  HUNT     ....  105 

HENRY  VIII  AND  OTHER  SKETCHES     ....  105 

Jacque,  Charles. 

LA  BERGERIE  BEARNAISE 108 

LA  BERGERIE 109 

LES  PETITES  MAISONS  KEKCASSIER     .      .      .      .  110 

LE  BUISSON  KERCASSIER 110 

DANS  LE  Bois Ill 

LA  VACHERE Ill 

Millet,  Jean-Francois. 

SHEPHERDESS  KNITTING 114 

THE  WOOL-CARDER 115 

Two  MEN  DIGGIXG 116 

THE  GLEANERS 117 

PEASANTS  GOING  TO  WORK 118 

A  WOMAN  CHURNING 119 

PEASANT  WITH  A  WHEELBARROW 119 

THE  SOWER 120 

DIGGER  LEANING  ON  HIS  SPADE 121 

THE  SHEPHERDESS  SEATED         121 

Millet,  Jean-Francois  (after). 

THE  WOOD-SAWYERS        126 

From  the  etching  by  William  Hole. 

THE  ANGELUS 127 

From  the  etching  by  Charles  Waltner. 


riv  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Haden,  Sir  Seymour. 

PORTRAIT  OF  SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN     ....  132 

From  the  drawing  by  J.  Wells  Champney. 
FAC-SIMILE  OF  A  PAGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT  IN  THE 

HANDWRITING  OF  SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN      .      .  133 

KENSINGTON  GARDENS 136 

EGHAM  LOCK 137 

EGHAM 137 

WHISTLER'S  HOUSE,  OLD  CHELSEA      ....  138 

CARDIGAN  BRIDGE 139 

NEWCASTLE  IN  EMLYN 139 

SHERE  MILL  POND 142 

OUT  OF  STUDY  WINDOW 143 

EARLY  MORNING  —  RICHMOND 143 

FULHAM 143 

A  SUNSET  IN  IRELAND 144 

TOWING  PATH 145 

A  WATER  MEADOW 145 

BREAKING  UP  OF  THE  AGAMEMNON      ....  146 

ERITH  MARSHES 147 

ENCOMBE  WOODS 147 

CALAIS  PIER 148 

After  the  painting  by  J.  M.  W.  Turner  in  the 
National  Gallery,  London. 

NINE  BARROW  DOWN 149 

WINDMILL  HILL,  NUMBER  Two 149 

GREENWICH 150 

HARLECH 151 

THE  TEST  AT  LONGPARISH 151 

Meryon,  Charles. 

LE  STRYGE 154 

LE  PONT  NEUF 155 

L'ABSIDE  DE  NOTRE  DAME  DE  PARIS       .     .     .156 

ST.  ETIENNE-DU-MONT 157 

TOURELLE,  RUE  DE  LA  TlXERANDERIE      .      .      .  157 

LE  PONT  AU  CHANGE 158 

LA  TOUR  DE  L'HORLOGE                 ....  159 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xv 

PAOB 

LE  PETIT-PONT 159 

LA  MOBGUE 160 

LA  POMPE  NOTRE  DAME 161 

L'ARCHE  DU  PONT  NOTRE  DAME 161 

Lalanne,  Maxime. 

RUE  DES  MARMOUSETS 162 

A  BORDEAUX  (Vue  Generate) 163 

VUE  PRISE  DU  PONT  SAINT-MICHEL    ....  163 

BORDEAUX,  QUAI  DES  CHARTRONS 164 

Whisiler,  J.  A.  McNeill. 

PORTRAIT  OF  WHISTLER 165 

From  the  original  drawing  by  Paul  Rajon. 

THE  KITCHEN 166 

THE  MUSTARD  WOMAN 167 

THE  RAG  GATHERERS 167 

ROTHERHITHE        168 

THE  LIMEBURNER 168 

ANNIE,  SEATED 169 

BIBI  LALOUETTE 169 

BILLINGSGATE 170 

PUTNEY  BRIDGE 170 

THE  ADAM  AND  EVE  TAVERN,  OLD  CHELSEA     .  171 

THE  RIVA,  NUMBER  ONE     .......  171 

THE  VELVET  DRESS 172 

FLORENCE  LEYLAND 173 

THE  MODEL  RESTING 173 

THE  DOORWAY 174 

THE  LITTLE  MAST 175 

THE  PIAZZETTA 175 

DORDRECHT 176 

AMSTERDAM  (Etched  from  the  Tolhuis)  ....  176 

PRICE'S  CANDLE-WORKS 177 

THE  THAMES  TOWARD  ERITH 177 

NOCTURNE:  PALACES 196 

GARDEN  197 


xvi  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Bracquemond,  Felix. 

EDMOND  DE  GONCOURT 202 

Etched  by  Bracquemond  from  his  own  drawing 
from  life. 

SEA  GULLS 203 

Buhot,  Felix. 

PORTRAIT  OF  FELIX  BUHOT 204 

A  photograph  around  which  the  artist  has 
drawn  a  "symphonic  margin." 

WESTMINSTER  PALACE 205 

WESTMINSTER  CLOCK  TOWER 205 

Legros,  Alphonse. 

PORTRAIT  OF  ALPHONSE  LEGROS 206 

From  the  original  etching  by  Felix  Bracque- 
mond. 

THE  CANAL 207 

DEATH  AND  THE  WOODMAN 208 

PORTRAIT  OF  ALFRED,  LORD  TENNYSON   .      .      .     209 

From  the  original  lithograph. 

PORTRAIT  OF  HENRY  W.  LONGFELLOW     .      .      .     209 
From  the  original  lithograph. 

SIR  EDWARD  J.  POYNTER,  P.  R.  A 210 

M.  J.  DALOU,  THE  FRENCH  SCULPTOR       .      .      .     211 
Van  Muyden,  Evert. 

EVERT  VAN  MUYDEN,  AT  THE  AGE  OF  THIRTY-SEVEN    214 

BULL  OF  THE  ROMAN  CAMPAGNA 215 

LION  ON  A  ROCK 218 

KING  OF  THE  DESERT 219 

BENGAL  TIGERS 219 

WHITE  MARE  AND  BLACK  COLT 220 

From  the  original  lithograph. 

OLD  SERVANTS  PENSIONED  OFF 221 

Pennell,  Joseph. 

PORTRAIT  OF  JOSEPH  PENNELL 222 

From  the  original  drawing  by  William  Strang. 
FAC-SIMILE   OF   AN   ILLUSTRATED   LETTER   FROM 
JOSEPH  PENNELL  223 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xvii 

PAGH 

ROUEN  CATHEDRAL 224 

From  the  original  lithograph. 

ROUEN 224 

From  the  original  lithograph. 

ROUEN:  FROM  BON  SECOURS 225 

ST.  MARTIN'S  BRIDGE,  TOLEDO 225 

GREENWICH  PARK,  NUMBER  Two        ....  226 

LINDSAY  Row 226 

CLASSIC  LONDON:  ST.  MARTIN'S-IN-THE-FIELDS   .  227 

CHURCH  OF  ST.  MARY  LE  STRAND       ....  227 

ROSSETTI'S  HOUSE 228 

THE  HOUSE  WHERE  WHISTLER  DIED         .      .     .  228 

THE  THAMES  FROM  RICHMOND  HILL   ....  229 

LINCOLN'S  INN  FIELDS 229 

THE  TOWER  BRIDGE 230 

THE  DOCK  HEAD 230 

HEMPSTEAD  PONDS 231 

ST.  BARTHOLOMEW'S,  THE  FOUNDER'S  TOMB        .  231 

ENTRANCE  TO  HENRY  THE  SEVENTH'S  CHAPEL   .  232 

ST.  PAUL'S,  THE  WEST  DOOR 232 

WESTMINSTER  ABBEY 233 

ST.  PAUL'S 233 

LEADENHALL  MARKET 234 

No.  230  STRAND 234 

THE  HAYMARKET  THEATRE 235 

THE  GOTHIC  CROSS 235 

"THE  GOLDEN  CORNICE" 236 

FORTY-SECOND  STREET 236 

LOWER  BROADWAY 237 

PARK  Row 237 

THE  WEST  STREET  BUILDING:  FROM  THE  SINGER 

BUILDING 238 

NEW  YORK:  PALISADES  AND  PALACES       .      .     .  238 

ON  THE  WAY  TO  BESSEMER 239 

NEW  YORK:  THE  BRIDGES 239 

NEW  YORK:  THE  UNBELIEVABLE  CITY     .     .     .  240 

PITTSBURGH,  NUMBER  Two 240 


xviii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

IN  THE  WORKS,  HOMESTEAD 241 

THE  CURVING  BRIDGE,  PITTSBURGH    .      .      .      .241 
Cameron,  D.  Y. 

SAINT  MARK'S,  VENICE,  NUMBER  Two  .     .      .     244 
THE  GATEWAY,  BRUGES ,     245 

Fantin-Latour,  Henri 

SIEGFRIED  AND  THE  RHINE  MAIDENS  ....     248 

THE  EVOCATION  OF  KUNDRY 249 

SARA  LA  BAIGNEUSE 250 

MANFRED  AND  THE  FAIRY  OF  THE  ALPS    .      .      .251 
Leech,  John. 

MRS.  WELLINGTON  AND  THE  MILITARY  NURSERY     254 

From  the  original  pencil  drawing. 
Keene,  Charles. 

"OPERA  SERIA" 255 

From  the  original  pen  drawing. 
May,  Phil. 

SUNDAY  AT  THE  Zoo 256 

From  the  original  pen  drawing. 

THE  AMATEUR  PHOTOGRAPHER 257 

From  the  original  pen  drawing. 
Keene,  Charles. 

"CUT  SHORT" 260 

From  the  original  pen  drawing. 

"LINGUA  EAST  ANGLICA" 261 

From  the  original  pen  drawings. 
Du  Maurier,  George. 

PORTRAIT  OF  THE  ARTIST 262 

From  the  original  pen  drawings. 

"MANY  HAPPY  RETURNS  OF  THE  DAY"  .     .     .     263 
From  the  original  pen  drawings. 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER 

CHIEFLY  PERSONAL 

THAT  sturdy  old  British  dogmatist,  Dr.  Samuel 
Johnson,  used  to  maintain  stoutly  that  no 
man  in  his  senses  ever  read  a  book  through  from 
beginning  to  end.  His  own  method  was  to  glance 
rapidly  through  the  pages,  read  only  the  parts 
that  interested  him,  and  "skip"  all  the  rest. 

Dr.  Johnson's  plan  might  be  wisely  followed  in 
the  case  of  this  introductory  chapter  of  mine, 
for  it  contains  very  little  about  Engravings  and 
Etchings,  and,  I  fear,  far  too  much  about  the 
present  writer. 

But  at  the  age  of  sixty-five  an  old  campaigner 
like  myself  may  be  pardoned  if  he  is,  at  times,  a 
little  garrulous,  seeing  that  he  began  his  cam- 
paigning at  the  age  of  thirteen;  and  so  I  feel  some- 
what like  Oliver  Goldsmith's  old  soldier,  who 
"shouldered  his  crutch  and  showed  how  Fields 
were  won,"  although  I  shall  pass  very  gently  over 
the  occasions  when  some  of  my  own  "fields"  were 
lost. 

A  kindly  English  cynic  has  said  that  before  an 
old  man  actually  falls  into  his  dotage  there  inter- 
venes a  sort  of  mellow  Indian  Summer  which  may 
\e  called  his  anec-dotage,  and  this  I  take  to  be 
* 


xx         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

my  own  position  now.  But  having  fairly  warned 
the  reader  that  this  first  chapter  is  of  a  rambling 
and  scattered  character,  I  add  the  promise  that 
throughout  the  remainder  of  the  book  I  shall 
stick  closely  to  my  subject. 

As  in  the  case  of  so  many  other  men,  the  career 
which  I  had  planned  for  myself  proved  to  be  very 
unlike  that  which  my  actual  life-work  has  been. 
From  early  boyhood  I  had  resolved  to  be  a  farmer. 
I  loved  the  country  and  everything  pertaining  to 
it,  —  the  domestic  animals  and  birds,  the  wild 
creatures,  the  vegetation  in  all  its  forms.  In  the 
year  1862  my  father  and  mother,  with  their  eight 
children,  were  residing  in  Liverpool,  England,  and 
although  he  had  a  comfortable  competence,  my 
father  deliberately  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
North  America  was  a  better  country  than  England 
for  the  future  career  of  his  boys  and  girls,  and  to 
America  the  whole  family  came.  But  my  father, 
being  a  stanch  British  Tory,  had  a  very  poor 
opinion  of  these  United  States,  and  so  we  settled 
in  Canada.  There  I  worked  very  contentedly  on 
a  farm  for  about  two  years,  and  I  would  probably 
have  remained  a  Canadian  farmer  to  the  present 
hour  were  it  not  that  I  sustained  a  hurt  which 
nearly  killed  me  and  which  put  an  end  to  every 
species  of  work  which  required  physical  strength 
and  endurance. 

It  was  haying  time  on  the  farm.  My  own  work 
was  to  drive  a  team  of  horses  to  the  meadow,  where 
the  hay  was  ready  for  housing  in  the  barn,  to  build 
the  load  on  the  wagon  and  to  drive  the  horses 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  xxi 

home.  The  men  who  pitched  the  hay  up  to  me  were 
too  lazy  or  too  careless  to  carry  their  pitchforks 
to  the  barn,  so  they  threw  them  up  on  the  top  of 
the  high  load.  I  started  my  horses,  but  an  axle 
broke,  the  load  toppled  over,  and  I  fell  heavily 
on  the  prongs  of  a  fork  which  pierced  my  lungs 
deeply.  When  the  doctor  saw  me  his  opinion 
amounted  to  just  this:  "If  he  lives  he'll  live,  and 
if  he  dies  he'll  die."  Well,  I  lived  —  but  my 
farming  days  were  forever  at  an  end. 

Next  after  farming  I  think  I  loved  books  best, 
and  so  I  made  my  way  to  New  York  and  engaged 
in  that  most  interesting  business,  a  bookseller's. 

To  finish  this  brief  account  of  my  family  in 
Canada,  I  will  mention  that  when  each  one  of 
my  brothers  attained  the  age  when  he  could 
safely  disobey  parental  authority  he  quit  Canada 
and  settled  in  the  United  States,  and  not  long 
afterward  the  old  couple  joined  us  in  New  York, 
where  they  lived  happily  to  the  ages  of  seventy- 
six  and  eighty-four  respectively.  My  old  father 
soon  became  an  enthusiastic  American.  He  was 
especially  proud  of  a  letter  which  he  received 
from  the  President  of  the  United  States,  Gen- 
eral Grant;  and  I  well  remember  his  pronounce- 
ment after  he  had  read  every  word  of  the  famous 
Beecher  trial.  He  flung  down  his  newspaper, 
and  exclaimed  (in  allusion  to  the  old  British  cus- 
tom of  starving  a  jury  so  as  to  compel  them  to 
agree  on  a  verdict)  "Well,  if  I  were  on  that  jury 
I'd  eat  my  shoes  before  I'd  convict  that  man!" 

But  how  did  I  become  a  printseller,  forty  years 


xxii       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

ago?  I  never  sought  such  a  career,  and  I  had  no 
knowledge  of  fine  prints;  but  I  was  pitchforked 
into  it  (pitchforks  again!)  by  a  quaint  and  curi- 
ous occurrence.  Among  my  New  York  acquaint- 
ances was  an  elderly  London  printseller  who 
had  set  up  a  shop  in  New  York.  During  his 
frequent  visits  to  me  he  wasted  my  time  sadly 
by  his  incessant  grumbling.  Everything  in  New 
York  was  wrong.  Day  and  night,  summer  and 
winter,  were  all  wrong.  The  people  of  New  York 
got  on  his  nerves  because  some  of  them  talked  with 
a  nasal  twang,  and  it  afflicted  him  that  vehicles 
took  the  right  side  of  the  street  instead  of  driving 
to  the  left  "as  they  very  properly  do  in  London." 
At  length  he  could  endure  his  annoyances  no 
longer,  so  he  clapped  his  entire  stock  into  Leavitt's 
Rooms  and  had  it  sold  at  auction.  The  result 
of  this  sale  was  (this  was  forty  years  ago)  that 
the  inferior  prints  all  sold  at  good  prices,  but  in 
the  course  of  the  sale  our  old  pessimist  found  it 
necessary  to  bid  in  some  sixty-two  of  his  finest 
prints  so  as  not  to  have  them  sacrificed  at  the 
auction.  Then  he  came  to  me,  with  the  portfolio 
of  his  prints  under  his  arm,  and  said:  "These 
prints  are  the  last  tie  that  binds  me  to  this 
hateful  place,  and  there  is  a  steamer  sailing 
for  England  on  Saturday.  I  believe  I  shall  go 
mad  if  I  have  to  stay  in  this  abominable  town  for 
another  week,  and  so  I  want  you  to  make  me  an 
offer  for  these  prints  which  I  saved  from  slaughter 
at  the  auction.  I  assure  you  that  they  cost  me, 
in  London,  well  over  a  hundred  pounds  sterling." 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  xxiii 

For  my  part,  I  had  no  more  use  for  his  old  prints 
than  I  would  have  had  for  the  collection  of  echoes 
which  Mark  Twain's  hero  spent  a  fortune  in 
purchasing,  and  so  to  "let  him  down  easy"  I  said 
I  would  not  pay  more  than  a  hundred  dollars 
for  them.  But,  to  my  dismay,  he  accepted  my 
offer,  and  I  found  myself  in  a  similar  predica- 
ment to  that  of  the  old  lady  who  had  won  an 
elephant  at  a  raffle!  However,  the  prints  were 
mine,  and  I  soon  learned  to  hate  the  sight  of 
them. 

This  brings  me  to  mention  a  Philadelphia 
man  who  had,  in  several  ways,  a  strong  influence 
in  making  my  life  what  it  has  been.  He  was 
George  Gebbie,  a  Scotchman  by  birth,  and  one 
of  the  finest  among  the  admirable  men  whom  it 
has  been  my  privilege  to  know.  He  had  his 
faults,  however,  including  a  very  irritable  and 
pugnacious  temper;  but  apart  from  that  I  have 
never  known  a  more  thoroughly  manly  man. 
Mr.  Gebbie  had  a  passionate  love  for  fine  litera- 
ture, and,  indeed,  he  himself  could  write  very 
well  both  in  prose  and  verse.  It  was  he  who 
first  indoctrinated  me  into  the  love  of  the  writings 
of  Shakespeare  and  of  Thackeray.  I  remember 
that  when  he  recommended  me  to  read  Thackeray 
I  asked  him  what  was  the  main  characteristic 
of  that  author's  writings.  His  answer  was  so 
fgood  that  it  ought  to  be  preserved  in  print:  "Well, 
it's  a  kindly  sneer  at  poor  humanity"  I  do  not 
think  that  Thackeray  could  be  better  character- 
ized in  one  short  phrase. 


xxiv      THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Mr.  Gebbie  was,  at  that  time,  a  publisher  and 
bookseller  in  Philadelphia  and  for  years  I  had  so 
much  business  to  transact  with  him  that  I  often 
went  there.  On  one  occasion  I  had  to  remain  in 
Philadelphia  for  an  entire  week.  Before  leaving 
New  York  I  wrote  to  my  friend  Gebbie,  announ- 
cing my  visit,  and  in  my  letter  I  made  mention 
of  the  portfolio  of  prints  which  I  had  so  foolishly 
bought  from  the  grim  old  Londoner.  I  said  in 
the  letter:  "You  remember  the  story  in  the  Vicar 
of  Wakefield  of  Moses,  the  vicar's  guileless  son, 
who  took  a  horse  to  sell  at  the  fair,  and  instead 
of  bringing  back  the  much-needed  money  he 
brought  home,  in  payment  for  the  horse,  a  gross 
of  green  spectacles,  which  had  been  palmed  off 
on  him  by  a  knave."  I  added  that  I  myself, 
no  wiser  than  young  Moses,  had  bought  a  gross 
of  green  spectacles  in  the  shape  of  a  portfolio  of 
ancient  and  dingy  looking  prints.  My  friend, 
in  answering  my  letter,  told  me  to  bring  my 
"gross  of  green  spectacles"  along  with  me  when 
I  came  to  Philadelphia,  and  he  added,  "You  may 
not  know  it,  but  there  are  people  who  collect 
these  smoky,  poky  old  prints." 

Arriving  in  Philadelphia  with  my  hated  port- 
folio, Mr.  Gebbie  gave  me  a  letter  of  introduc- 
tion to  the  late  John  S.  Phillips,  a  wealthy  old 
Philadelphian  who  had  spent  most  of  his  life 
in  collecting  fine  old  engravings,  and  whose  col-* 
lection  is  now  one  of  the  chief  treasures  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine  Arts.  I  showed 
him  my  sixty-two  prints  and  told  him  how  they 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  xxv 

came  into  my  possession.  Mr.  Phillips  looked 
them  over  and  asked  me  what  was  their  price. 
I  answered  that,  like  a  fool,  I  had  paid  a  hundred 
dollars  for  them  and  that  all  I  asked  was  to  get 
my  money  back  if  I  could.  The  gracious  old 
gentleman  answered,  "You  say  you  know  nothing 
as  to  the  value  of  these  prints.  That  being  so, 
it  would  be  a  dishonest  act  on  my  part  to  buy 
the  lot  from  you  for  a  hundred  dollars.  I  find 
six  among  them  which  are  well  worth  that  sum 
to  me,  and  I  will  buy  them  from  you." 

Old  Mr.  Phillips,  being  full  of  his  hobby  and 
learning  that  I  was  to  remain  in  Philadelphia 
for  a  week,  undertook  my  first  education  in  print- 
lore.  He  put  some  questions  to  me:  "Can  you 
translate  from  the  French?"  I  answered  "Yes." 
"Can  you  translate  German?"  "No."  "Can 
you  translate  Italian?"  "With  the  aid  of  what 
Latin  I  know,  yes."  Then  he  showed  me  rows 
and  rows  of  books  in  his  library  and  said  to  me: 
'These  are  all  books  of  reference  describing 
the  works  of  various  great  engravers.  They  are 
mainly  in  the  French  language.  You  shall  come 
here  every  day,  take  some  of  your  prints,  and 
identify  them  in  my  books."  This  was  my  first 
lesson  in  my  specialty. 

Mr.  Phillips  also  marked  the  approximate 
value  on  each  one  of  my  prints  and  gave  me  letters 
of  introduction  to  other  Philadelphia  collectors. 
Among  these  were  the  late  John  Huneker,  father 
of  Mr.  James  G.  Huneker,  of  New  York,  the 
distinguished  writer  on  art  and  on  music.  I  was 


xxvi      THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

also  introduced  to  the  greatest  print-collector  of 
his  time,  James  L.  Claghorn.  During  my  long 
life  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  have  known  many 
notable  men  and  women,  but  a  finer  specimen 
of  humanity,  mentally  and  morally,  than  Mr. 
Claghorn  I  have  never  known.  He  was  of  a  type 
which  is  very  rare  except  in  America;  a  strong, 
forceful  man  who  would  have  been  a  master  under 
nearly  any  circumstances,  a  great  financier,  a 
powerful  man  of  affairs,  but  yet  a  genuine  lover 
and  collector  of  works  of  art.  He  was  a  huge 
man,  weighing  more  than  three  hundred  pounds, 
but  he  had  a  heart  nearly  as  big  as  his  own  girth ! 
The  poorest  and  obscurest  art  student  in  Phila- 
delphia was  as  welcome  to  examine  and  study 
his  art  treasures  as  was  the  greatest  person  in 
the  community.  Mr.  Claghorn,  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  Mr.  Phillips,  bought  a  number  of  prints 
from  my  "gross  of  green  spectacles,"  and  I  re- 
turned to  New  York  with  money  enough  to  make 
me  decide  to  become  a  printseller.  To  do  this 
it  was  necessary  for  me  to  go  to  Europe  to  pro- 
cure my  stock,  and  to  Europe  I  went.  It  did 
not  take  long  for  me  to  expend  my  little  store  of 
money,  so  I  packed  up  my  stock  and  engaged 
my  passage  to  New  York  on  a  steamer  which 
was  to  sail  in  a  few  days.  The  day  following  I 
learned  that  the  greatest  printseller  in  all  Europe 
could  be  found  at  number  109,  The  Strand.  I 
went  there  and  read  on  the  signboard  the  name 
of  Noseda.  I  entered,  inquired  for  Mr.  Noseda, 
and  learned  that  the  head  of  the  house  was  Mrs. 


JAMES   L.   CLAGHORN 
The  eminent  print  collector  of  Philadelphia 


MR.   CLAGHORN'S  PRINT  ROOM,   PHILADELPHIA 


THE  PRINT  ROOM  OF  THE   BRITISH   MUSEUM,  LONDON 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  xxvii 

Noseda,  an  elderly  widow.  I  was  introduced  to 
her  and  found  that  in  spite  of  her  Italian  name 
she  was  a  good  cockney  who  had  been  born  to 
the  prosy  name  of  Jane  Smith,  and  I  perceived 
that  when  she  spoke,  the  letter  h  was  very  uncer- 
tain in  her  vocabulary.  I  stated  my  business 
and  said  that  I  had  spent  all  my  money  before 
I  knew  of  her  and  her  magnificent  stock  of 
rare  prints.  "It  might  be  arranged,"  said  Mrs. 
Noseda,  "if  you  'ave  good  London  references." 
Well,  I  had,  and  next  day  I  took  to  her  three 
letters  of  which  I  was  quite  proud.  "What  are 
these?"  said  she.  I  answered  that  they  were 
three  letters  from  prominent  London  merchants, 
and  that  these  letters  spoke  of  me  as  being  an 
honest  and  industrious  young  man.  Mrs.  No- 
seda tore  up  the  three  letters  unopened,  dropped 
them  into  the  fire,  and  said  to  me:  "Now  you 
may  take  anything  and  everything  you  like  of 
my  stock,  and  when  you  return  from  New  York 
next  year  you  shall  pay  me  for  them." 

This  remarkable  woman's  confidence  in  a 
struggling  "nobody"  gave  me  my  first  real  start 
as  a  printseller;  and  I  may  add  that  for  long  years 
afterwards  I  had  the  pleasure  of  paying  her  a 
good  many  thousands  of  pounds  sterling. 

Some  competent  person  should  have  written 
Mrs.  Noseda's  biography.  If  ever  there  was  a 
genuine  "character"  she  was  one.  She  was 
upright  and  downright,  very  aggressive  and  posi- 
tive, she  was  endowed  with  "a  fine,  furious  tem- 
per," and  afraid  of  nothing  in  heaven  above,  or 


xxviii    THE   GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

on  earth  beneath.  Like  nearly  all  of  the  Lon- 
don shopkeepers  (strange  to  say)  she  was  a 
stanch  Tory,  and  she  was  recognized  throughout 
Europe  as  the  authority  on  her  difficult  specialty. 
After  her  shop  was  shut  in  the  evening  I  often 
joined  her  at  supper,  and  this  supper  always 
consisted  of  bread  and  cheese  and  a  glass  of 
bitter  ale.  On  these  occasions  it  was  sometimes 
my  humor  to  set  her  to  abusing  Mr.  Gladstone. 
She  would  willingly  have  pulled  the  rope  which 
should  hang  him !  At  supper  one  evening  we 
had  the  company  of  Mr.  Addington,  a  gentleman 
who  had  made  a  notable  collection  of  prints. 
In  expounding  her  theories  to  him  I  remember 
that  she  brought  down  her  fist  on  the  table  and 
shouted  out:  "Women  are  the  /^enemies  of  my 
business."  It  was  true  enough  then,  but  (at 
least  in  America)  all  that  is  changed  now,  and 
to-day  women  are  among  the  most  enlightened 
and  enthusiastic  collectors  of  fine  prints.  After 
her  death  her  son  and  successor  very  truly  said 
to  me:  "My  mother  should  have  been  a  man." 
If  she  had  been  she  would  have  been  an  excep- 
tionally manly  man.  Her  habitual  epithet  in 
speaking  of  a  certain  rival,  a  man  who  had 
nothing  like  her  own  knowledge  and  taste  in 
works  of  art,  was  "that  old  woman  in  Garrick 
Street." 

Although  she  was  a  genuinely  womanly  woman 
she  had,  superadded  to  that,  the  heart  of  a  hero. 
I  shall  relate  one  of  the  most  "manly"  acts  I 
ever  knew  of  her:  Her  landlord  was  the  late  Mar- 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  xxix 

quis  of  Salisbury,  who  was  afterward  the  Brit- 
ish prime  minister.  Any  London  shopkeeper  is 
highly  flattered  if  a  nobleman  takes  the  slightest 
notice  of  him,  but  in  this  incident  his  lordship 
found  that  in  patronizing  Mrs.  Noseda  he  had 
got  (as  a  patriotic  Englishman  said  to  Queen 
Elizabeth  after  her  victory  over  the  "invincible" 
Spanish  Armada)  "the  wrong  sow  by  the  ear"! 
Lord  Salisbury,  who  had  long  been  a  man  of  let- 
ters, was  making  a  historical  study  of  the  speakers 
of  the  House  of  Commons  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  the  Second.  Mrs.  Noseda,  knowing  of 
this,  selected  from  her  great  stock  of  prints  a 
large  number  of  portraits  bearing  on  the  subject, 
and  along  with  them  she  sent  memoranda  about 
the  chief  British  painters  and  engravers  of  that 
epoch.  About  this  time  the  first  co-operative 
stores  had  been  established  in  London  and,  in 
consequence,  all  the  retail  shopkeepers  were 
greatly  alarmed  for  their  own  future.  I  was  in 
the  valiant  old  woman's  shop  when  a  grand  car- 
riage stopped  at  the  door,  a  footman  carried  in 
a  portfolio  of  prints,  and  the  Marquis  of  Salis- 
bury entered,  carrying  in  his  hand  a  large  official 
looking  card,  which  was  signed,  countersigned, 
and  sealed.  This  was  a  certificate  of  life-member- 
ship in  the  Army  and  Navy  co-operative  stores, 
and  was  made  out  in  the  name  of  Mrs.  Jane 
Noseda.  His  lordship  said  to  her:  "In  lending 
me  all  these  rare  portraits,  and  sending  me  your 
memoranda  about  them,  you  have  done  me  a 
service  greater  than  you  may  suppose.  I  will 


xxx   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

not  offend  you  by  offering  to  pay  you  for  this, 
but  I  have  brought  you  a  little  present  which 
you  will  find  useful."  With  that  he  handed  her 
the  card.  She  read  it  and  then  said  to  him: 
"What  is  this,  my  lord?"  He  told  her  what  it 
was,  but  she  laid  it  down  before  him  on  a  table, 
and  said:  "I  thank  you,  my  lord,  but  I  cawn't  go 
against  my  own  class."  "Why,  Mrs.  Noseda," 
said  he,  "you  will  save  ten  or  fifteen  per  cent  in 
the  purchasing  of  all  your  household  supplies." 
"Let  the  shopkeepers  make  their  profit  out  of 
me!"  she  shouted  (by  this  time  she  was  angry). 
"My  lord,"  she  went  on,  "you  and  the  other  great 
property  owners  are  starving  your  own  tenants, 
and  if  this  goes  on  you  will  have  whole  rows  of 
shops  standing  empty  and  idle.  I  won't  accept 
your  card ! "  The  Marquis  of  Salisbury  was 
little  used  to  having  such  "faithful"  talk  addressed 
to  him  by  one  of  his  own  tenants,  so  he  stared  at 
the  angry  old  woman,  put  the  offending  card  in 
his  pocket,  and  exclaiming  "God  bless  my  soul!" 
strode  away  to  his  carriage. 

In  attending  the  many  important  auction  sales 
in  Paris,  she  had  no  mercy  on  her  own  health. 
She  would  quit  London  in  the  evening,  travel  all 
night  to  Paris  (a  wearisome  journey),  next  morn- 
ing she  would  examine  the  prints,  then  spend  the 
whole  afternoon  in  the  auction  room,  and  that 
same  evening  she  would  set  out  on  her  return  to 
London. 

In  Paris  "Madame"  Noseda  was  almost  as  well 
known  as  were  the  two  great  towers  of  the  cathe- 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  xxxi 

dral  of  Notre  Dame.  Indeed,  any  one  seeing  her  in 
her  street  attire  (which  was  the  same  at  all  seasons 
and  for  long  years)  was  not  likely  to  forget  her. 
She  generally  wore  a  yellow  gown;  her  hat  was  of 
the  most  outlandish  and  flamboyant  British  style, 
but  it  was  her  outer  street  garment  which  made 
her  unforgetable.  It  was  a  satin  shawl  of  scarlet 
and  yellow,  in  broad  alternate  stripes,  and  it  could 
be  seen  in  the  street  as  far  as  human  eyesight  could 
reach.  Whenever  some  great  collection  of  prints 
came  to  be  sold  at  auction  she  was  pretty  sure  to 
be  the  largest  buyer;  and  yet  her  knowledge  of 
the  French  language  was  of  the  slightest.  She 
could  say  "oui"  and  "won"  and  "bon  jour,"  but 
beyond  that  she  knew  little  more  except  the 
numerals  1,  2,  3,  etc.,  which  were  indispensable 
for  her  buying  and  selling;  but,  all  the  same,  and 
by  some  "rule  of  thumb"  of  her  own,  she  gener- 
ally managed  to  puzzle  out  the  meaning  of  auction 
catalogues  and  books  of  reference  in  the  French 
and  German  languages.  Once,  I  remember,  she 
missed  buying  an  important  old  Dutch  print  at 
a  Paris  auction.  She  had  consulted  the  standard 
French  authority  on  the  prints  by  that  master, 
and  had  read  that  in  the  middle  distance,  to  the 
left,  there  stood  a  "meule"  After  she  had  missed 
getting  possession  of  the  coveted  print,  she  said  to 
me:  "It's  not  the  right  one.  The  book  describes 
a  mule  standing  in  the  landscape.  I  could  see  no 
quadruped  there,  all  I  saw  was  a  hayrick."  She 
did  not  know  that  the  French  word  "meule"  was 
a  hayrick! 


xxxil     THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

How  often  it  happens,  in  this  "vale  of  tears," 
that  a  human  life  ends  sadly  enough.  It  was  so 
in  Mrs.  Noseda's  case.  When  she  was  nearly 
eighty  I  noticed,  during  my  visits  to  London,  that 
her  strenuous  day's  work  tired  her  greatly,  and  I 
used  to  exhort  her  to  take  a  long  and  complete 
rest.  Her  answer  generally  was:  "I  cawnt.  Who 
could  take  my  place  'ere?"  When  I  returned  to 
London  one  year,  my  first  visit  was  to  the  print- 
seller  whom  she  used  to  call  "that  old  woman." 
I  said  to  him  that  I  did  not  quite  feel  that  I  was 
in  London  because  I  had  not  yet  seen  Mrs. 
Noseda.  This  man,  rubbing  his  hands  gleefully, 
said  to  me:  "We  shall  have  no  more  trouble 
with  her.  She's  in  Bedlam"  (Bedlam,  the  Beth- 
lehem Hospital  for  the  insane,  was  what  he  meant). 
I  was  shocked  and  grieved  at  the  news  he  gave 
me,  but  I  said  to  him:  "I  see  that  your  most 
formidable  rival  has  been  disabled;  but  let  me 
tell  you  that  Mrs.  Noseda  had  more  brains  than 
you  and  I  and  any  other  half  dozen  of  us  put 
together." 

The  valiant  old  woman  lingered  on  in  the  asylum 
for  about  three  years,  and  then  she  died. 

Another,  though  a  minor  character,  among  the 
old-time  London  printsellers  was  Mr.  Benoni 
White,  of  Brownlow  Street,  High  Holborn.  It 
was  known  that  he  was  an  expert  who  had  accu- 
mulated a  fine  stock  of  good  prints.  But  his  wife 
inherited  a  legacy  which  was  sufficient  to  main- 
tain the  old  couple  in  comfort  to  the  end  of  their 
lives,  and  the  true  spirit  of  the  old  man  was  able 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  xxxiii 

to  assert  itself.  Then  it  was  found  that  he  loved 
his  prints  far  too  well  to  think  of  parting  with  any 
of  them.  During  the  nine  or  ten  years  when  I 
knew  him  he  used  to  keep  regular  business  hours. 
He  would  arrive  in  the  morning,  open  his  shop, 
carefully  locking  the  front  door  from  the  inside, 
and  then  settle  down  to  be  happy  until  the  even- 
ing hour  for  closing.  Many  a  time  have  I  stared 
through  the  windows  at  prints  which  I  would 
have  been  very  glad  to  buy;  and  having  tried  the 
locked  door  I  would  knock,  the  old  man  would 
look  up,  pleasantly  enough,  but  would  give  me  a 
decided  shake  of  his  head  and  then  go  on  contem-  -^*/  n  5? 
plating  some  of  his  particular  pets,  and  leave  me  o 
fretting  and  fuming  on  the  sidewalk.  After  the 
•  legacy  he  never  parted  with  a  print  to  the  day  of  / 
/  his  death.  • 

When  famous  collections  of  old  prints  have  come 
to  be  dispersed  at  public  auction  in  Europe  the 
operation  of  buying  what  one  wants  has  its  own 
adventures.  One  such  I  shall  relate.  At  the  sale 
in  Berlin  of  a  great  collection,  I  bought,  for  1400 
marks,  Rembrandt's  large  etching  called  "The 
Great  Ecce  Homo"  representing  Pontius  Pilate 
presenting  Christ  to  the  people.  After  the  print 
had  been  "knocked  down"  to  me,  a  well-dressed 
but  somehow  suspicious  looking  man  came  and 
spoke  to  me  in  German,  but  quickly  perceiving 
that  I  did  not  understand  that  language  he  at 
once  dropped  into  excellent  French.  At  the  theater 
I  have  sometimes  paid  my  money  to  witness  an 
actor  playing  a  part  which  was  not  so  well  acted 


xxxiv    THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

as  this  comedy  which  my  interlocutor  then  pro- 
ceeded to  play  for  me. 

He  said,  very  politely,  "Sir,  I  see  that  you 
are  a  stranger  in  Berlin.  I  myself  was  born  here 
and  I  have  some  civic  pride  in  my  native  city. 
I  am  sorry  to  tell  you  that  you  have  been  de- 
frauded in  paying  the  price  which  you  did  for  that 
Rembrandt  etching.  There  is  an  unfair  combi- 
nation here  to  compel  strangers  to  pay  an  exces- 
sive price  at  auctions  of  works  of  art.  I  have 
often  remonstrated  with  my  fellow  citizens  and 
have  told  them  that  they  were  driving  away  such 
sales  to  the  Paris  and  London  auction  houses." 
After  he  had  ascertained  that  I  was  willing  to  buy 
a  duplicate  proof  of  the  Ecce  Homo,  he  said: 
"As  a  loyal  citizen  of  Berlin,  it  is  in  my  power  to 
make  restitution  to  you  for  the  excessive  price 
which  they  have  made  you  pay  just  now"  (I 
knew  that  I  had  not  paid  an  excessive  price).  He 
went  on:  "I  have  in  my  own  collection  a  much 
better  proof  of  this  same  etching.  If  yours  is 
worth  fourteen  hundred  marks  mine  is  certainly 
worth  two  thousand;  but,  so  as  to  make  restitu- 
tion to  you,  I  would  sell  it  for  one  thousand." 
He  conducted  me  to  a  handsome  and  well-fur- 
nished house  and,  producing  his  print,  he  laid  it 
before  me  with  the  care  which  was  due  to  so  pre- 
cious an  object.  I  again  asked  him  its  price,  and  he 
answered:  "Under  the  circumstances,  and  for  you 
only,  the  price  is  one  thousand  marks."  I  looked 
him  straight  in  the  eye  and  told  him  that  I  would 
give  him  five  marks  for  it !  He  gave  me  a  quick, 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  xxxv 

sharp   glance,   saw   that   his   imposture   was   de-  I  -1- 
tected  and  said  to  me,  cheerfully  enough,  "Take  / 
it ! "  I  bought  it  for  five  marks,  so  as  to  put  it  along  , 
with  my  original  Rembrandt.     This  very  deceiv- 
ing counterfeit  is  the  work  of  a  pupil  of  Rem- 
brandt's, Solomon  Savry,  and  it  is  practically  as 
fine  a  picture  as  the  original.     The  only  way  to 
distinguish  them  is  that  Savry  had  slightly  cor- 
rected  the  drawing  of  the  extended  hand  of  a 
pharisee,  which  hand,  Rembrandt,  in  his  creative 
haste,  had  drawn  a  little  carelessly. 

I  am  bound  to  add  that  this  man  who  had  elab- 
orated a  comedy  to  cheat  me  was  friendly  and 
useful  to  me  during  the  remaining  days  of  the 
auction  sale.  He  had  doubtless  realized  what  Sir 
Walter  Scott  calls 

"  That  stern  joy  which  warriors  feel, 
At  foeman  worthy  of  their  steel." 

I  have  already  said  that  I  would  pass  very  ten- 
derly over  the  failures  and  mistakes  of  my  career 
as  a  printseller;  tfut  I  will  relate  an  incident  in 
which  I  was  fortunate  beyond  my  deserts.  The 
first  —  the  indispensable  authority  on  the  old  en- 
gravers and  etchers  is  Le  Peintre-Graveur,  a  work 
in  twenty-one  volumes,  compiled  more  than  a 
century  ago  by  Adam  Bartsch,  the  curator  of 
the  great  collection  of  engravings  at  Vienna.  He 
wrote  this  monumental  work  in  the  French  lan- 
guage, and  his  diction,  if  quaint,  is  very  good. 

One  summer,  when  I  was  in  London,  I  had 
money  enough  to  buy  a  set  of  "Bartsch."  The 


xxxvi    THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

evening  of  the  day  upon  which  I  received  the 
work  I  dined  at  the  house  of  a  wealthy  Londoner. 
After  dinner  the  footman  served  the  guests  with 
large  cups  of  very  strong  coffee.  All  the  guests, 
including  the  ladies,  partook  of  this  stimulant, 
and,  not  to  be  singular,  so  did  I.  Arrived  at  my 
lodging  about  midnight  I  found  that  the  coffee 
was  far  too  potent  to  allow  me  to  sleep.  So  I  left 
my  bed,  lit  my  candle,  and  sought  some  stupid 
book  the  reading  of  which  might  induce  som- 
nolence. I  took  up,  at  random,  volume  14  of 
Bartsch's  work,  returned  to  bed,  and  by  the  light 
of  my  candle  I  read  nearly  all  of  the  four  hundred 
and  fifty  pages.  This  volume  treats  of  the  works 
engraved  by  Marcantonio  Ramondi,  who  worked 
under  the  direction  of  Raphael.  Toward  morning 
I  got  sleepy.  The  last  print  which  I  had  read  about 
was  a  Madonna  in  the  Clouds,  a  print  which  is  mi- 
nutely described  by  Bartsch,  but  which  I  had  never 
seen.  It  is  a  print  measuring  about  6^  by  5^  inches. 
Then  I  fell  asleep.  Next  morning  I  went  to  keep 
an  appointment  in  the  Brompton  Road,  and  as 
I  rode  by  on  the  top  of  an  omnibus  I  caught  a 
glimpse,  down  a  narrow  side  street,  of  a  shop 
which  had  a  bunch  of  old  prints  hanging  at  the 
door.  They  were  labeled  "Your  choice  for  six- 
pence" (twelve  cents).  I  was  always  blessed  with 
very  keen  eyesight,  but  naturally  I  could  only  see 
the  print  which  hung  on  the  outside.  I  rode  on 
to  my  destination  and  then  came  back  on  foot  to 
the  little  street  where  I  could  have  "my  choice 
for  sixpence."  Most  of  the  prints  were  not  worth 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  xxxvii 

even  this  modest  price,  but  the  one  I  had  had  a 
glimpse  of,  two  hundred  feet  away,  was  obviously 
a  fine  old  Italian  engraving,  and  in  the  manner  of 
Marcantonio.  So  I  bought  the  print  for  sixpence 
and  took  it  to  the  Print  Room  of  the  British 
Museum.  One  of  the  curators  told  me  that  it 
was  the  genuine  print,  although  it  had  been  count- 
erfeited more  than  once,  and  that  my  acquisition 
was  a  fine  original  impression.  Then  I  took  it  to 
Mr.  Holloway,  a  very  learned  printseller.  I  told 
him  that  I  had  found  it  in  a  very  unlikely  place, 
that  I  had  bought  it  at  a  very  low  price,  and  that 
I  would  sell  it  to  him  at  any  price  which  he  would 
name  himself.  Mr.  Holloway,  who  knew  the 
famous  print  right  well,  said  to  me,  "Well,  Mr. 
Keppel,  this  is  a  print  for  which  I  might  not  find 
a  buyer  in  ten  years.  I  would  take  it  from  you  at 
thirty  guineas  (about  $153),  but  it  is  worth  more." 
I  said  I  would  accept  the  money,  and  he  paid  it 
to  me.  So  much  for  the  combination  of  a  big  cup 
of  strong  coffee,  a  man  with  long  and  strong  eye- 
sight, and  perhaps,"  also,  a  good  memory  for  what 
he  had  read  for  the  sole  purpose  of  putting  him- 
self to  sleep! 

Besides  Mr.  Claghorn,  two  of  the  most  notable 
print-collectors  of  my  time  were  the  late  Henry 
F.  Sewall  and  the  late  Samuel  P.  Avery,  both 
New  Yorkers.  Mr.  Sewall's  specialty  was  the  older 
engravings,  while  Mr.  Avery  confined  himself  to 
the  nineteenth-century  etchings. 

Mr.  Sewall's  knowledge  of  old  prints  was  quite 
phenomenal.  In  the  course  of  my  own  affairs  I 


xxxviii     THE   GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

have  often  been  called  upon  to  identify  and  authen- 
ticate some  rare  old  print.  Sometimes  I  knew 
it  at  sight,  sometimes  I  found  it  described  in  the 
books  of  reference,  but  on  several  occasions  I  had 
to  resort  to  my  court  of  final  appeal:  I  simply 
took  the  print  to  Mr.  Sewall  and  on  every  such 
occasion  he  was  at  once  able  to  identify  it.  The 
citizens  of  Boston  did  a  wise  thing  when,  after  Mr. 
SewalPs  death,  they  bought  his  great  collection 
for  their  city. 

Samuel  P.  Avery  was  a  dealer  in  paintings,  and 
was  perhaps  the  most  eminent  expert  of  his  time. 
His  judgment  on  a  painting  was  almost  like  "the 
oracle  of  the  Lord  "  and  many  times  since  his 
death  some  painting,  bought  on  his  recommenda- 
tion, has  been  resold  at  a  great  advance  on  Mr. 
Avery's  original  price  for  it.  It  is  very  unusual 

for  a  man  who  has  made  a  competence  in  retail 

mi  *  n  1 1  *     <  '~*K* 

business  to  become  a  generous  public  benefacTO, 
but  Samuel  P.  Avery  was  a  notable  exception. 
In  his  later  years  he  was  one  of  the  most  liberal 
and  public-spirited  citizens  of  New  York.  The 
Avery  Library  of  architectural  books  at  Columbia 
University  is  one  of  the  permanent  monuments 
to  his  memory.  Another  is  the  superb  collection 
of  oriental  porcelains  which  is  now  in  the  Metro- 
politan Museum.  But  Mr.  Avery's  chief  memorial 
is  the  great  collection  of  nineteenth-century  etch- 
ings which  is  soon  to  be  housed  in  the  new  Public 
Library  of  New  York.  It  is  a  collection  of  prints 
which  it  would  now  be  quite  impossible  to  dupli- 
cate. A  very  curious  circumstance  was  that 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  xxxix 

although  Mr.  Avery  lived  and  grew  rich  by  his 
signal  ability  as  a  dealer  in  paintings,  yet  when 
he  bought  a  picture  for  himself  it  was  pretty  sure 
to  be  a  modest  etching  in  black-and-white.  His 
collection  of  French  nineteenth-century  etchings 
is,  I  believe,  the  finest  in  the  world,  and  yet  he 
did  not  speak  the  French  language. 

With  regard  to  the  Avery  collection  of  Whist- 
ler's etchings,  I  may  relate  that  when  the  eminent 
London  critic,  Mr.  Frederick  Wedmore,  under- 
took to  make  a  catalogue  of  these  etchings,  his 
first  move  was  naturally,  to  state  his  purpose  to 
W7histler.  The  great  man  then  said  to  him:  "My 
dear  boy,  I  have  kept  little  or  nothing  of  my  own 
etchings,  but  if  you  wish  to  make  an  adequate 
catalogue  of  them,  you  must  go  to  New  York  and 
see  them  in  Mr.  Samuel  P.  Avery's  collection." 
Mr.  Wedmore  came  to  New  York,  and  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  introducing  him  to  Mr.  Avery.  WTed- 
more's  catalogue  of  Whistler's  etchings  was  first 
published  in  1886  #nd  for  about  twenty  years  it 
remained  the  standard  authority.  But  twTo  later 
books  on  this  much-studied  subject  must,  in  the 
main,  supersede  the  earlier  work.  These  two 
books  are  the  very  carefully  prepared  catalogues 
of  Mr.  Howard  Mansfield,  published  in  1909, 
and  that  of  Mr.  Edward  G.  Kennedy,  published 
in  1910.  It  is  a  source  of  pride  to  me  that  these 
two  monumental  works  were  written  by  New  York 
experts. 

An  interesting  interview  which  I  had  in  Paris 
with  the  great  composer,  Charles  Gounod,  may  be 


xl  THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

worth  recording.  Every  one  knows  his  operas,  such 
as  Faust  and  Romeo  and  Juliet,  and  his  orchestral 
pieces,  such  as  the  charming  Funeral  March  of  a 
Marionnette,  but  his  sacred  music  (which  I  think 
is  his  finest)  is  less  known. 

After  I  had  left  the  choir  of  Old  Trinity  Church, 
New  York,  our  much-loved  director,  A.  H.  Messiter, 
was  about  to  celebrate  his  thirtieth  year  as  organist 
and  choirmaster  of  Trinity,  and  to  mark  the  occa- 
sion a  hundred  men,  tenors,  baritones  and  bassos, 
who,  as  boys,  had  sung  in  his  choir,  resolved 
to  celebrate  the  anniversary.  Having  obtained 
the  consent  of  the  rector,  Dr.  Morgan  Dix,  they 
chose  a  Mass  by  Gounod,  written  for  adult  male 
voices,  and  they  had  it  arranged  for  the  communion 
service  of  the  Episcopal  church.  I  was  one  of  the 
hundred  singers  invited  to  participate,  but  I  could 
not  do  so  for  two  reasons  which  I  may  classify 
under  the  headings  a  and  b;  a,  I  had  to  be  in  Paris 
on  that  date,  and  6,  my  voice  was  gone  and  I 
couldn't  sing  anyhow!  But  I  resolved  to  do  what 
I  could  for  our  choirmaster.  Arrived  in  Paris  I 
learned  that  Gounod  was  "visible'9  at  two  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  but  only  by  previous  appoint- 
ment. I  was  warned  to  write  to  him  in  French 
and  that  it  had  become  usual  to  address  him  as 
Maitre.  So  I  wrote  to  the  great  man  and  stated 
my  case:  I  said  that  I  applied  to  him  for  a  few 
lines  written  by  his  own  hand,  congratulating  the 
organist  and  choirmaster  of  Old  Trinity  on  the 
occasion  of  his  thirtieth  anniversary  of  director- 
ship of  the  famous  choir;  I  said  that  Dr.  Messiter 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  xli 

was  the  first  man  in  America  who  had  made  Gou- 
nod's sacred  music  known  to  all  the  churches  out- 
side the  Catholic,  and  that  I  could  assure  him  that 
in  music  Messiter  was  an  artist  and  that,  per- 
sonally, he  was  a  gentleman.  I  added  that  I 
would  call  at  his  house  the  following  day  in  the 
hope  of  receiving  a  favorable  response  to  my  re- 
quest. When  I  arrived  there  I  was  told  that  the 
master  would  receive  me  and  that  I  would  find 
him  in  his  music  room.  I  was  ushered  into  a 
room  as  big  as  a  chapel  and  I  saw  that  the  whole 
end  of  it,  from  floor  to  ceiling  and  from  wall  to 
wall,  was  filled  with  a  great  organ.  At  the  organ 
the  master  was  seated,  and  I  remember  that  he 
was  dressed  in  a  suit  of  dark  brown  velvet  and  wore 
on  his  head  a  toque  or  cap  of  the  same  material.  He 
did  not  quit  his  seat,  but  he  said  to  me  in  French  : 
"You  are  the  gentleman  from  New  York,"  and 
pointing  to  a  table  he  added,  "There  is  your  letter." 
Gounod  continued,  "But  I  do  not  like  the  Ameri- 
cans; they  steal  my/ music."  I  answered  that  this 
was  true,  but  I  assured  him  that  the  choir  of  Old 
Trinity  never  stole  his  music,  because  they  always 
sang  it  from  his  own  copyright  edition.  "Ah, 
c'est  bien"  said  Gounod,  and  then,  looking  at  his 
watch,  he  told  me  that  in  four  minutes  he  expected 
the  visit  of  a  friend  who  was  to  take  him  in  his 
carriage  for  a  drive  in  the  Bois  de  Boulogne.  He 
added:  "For  four  minutes  I  am  at  your  service; 
what  shall  I  play  for  you?"  Reflecting  for  a 
moment,  I  answered:  "Four  minutes,  master;  then 
play  me  that  instrumental  introduction,  before  the 


xlii         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

voices  come  in,  to  the  Credo  of  your  Saint  Cecilia 
Mass."  Then,  for  the  first  time,  the  old  gentle- 
man shuffled  off  his  seat,  came  and  gripped  me  by 
the  hand,  and  said:  "Vous  aimez  ce  morceau  la;  je 
Vaime  moi-meme!"  (You  like  that  piece?  I  like 
it  myself !)  Then  he  went  back  to  his  organ  and 
played  what  I  had  asked  for,  superbly,  and  just 
as  he  had  finished,  his  friend  arrived  and  took 
him  away.  I  never  saw  Gounod  again. 

Having  strayed  so  far  away  from  my  subject  in 
this  chapter,  I  shall  end  it  by  straying  still  farther, 
for  I  shall  bring  on  the  scene  a  famous  heavy- 
weight prize-fighter.  We  must  not  think  that  the 
ancient  days  of  knight-errantry  are  dead,  when  a 
knight  became  the  champion  of  any  helpless 
person,  man  or  woman.  The  Irish  have  a 
phrase,  "a  whole  man"  and  a  great  pugilist 
must  be  just  that,  at  least  on  the  physical  side. 
In  the  summer  of  1909  I  took  a  steamer  from 
England,  on  my  seventy-ninth  passage  across  the 
Atlantic.  Our  first  meal  on  the  steamer  was  the 
one  o'clock  lunch.  Seats  had  been  assigned  to 
the  passengers,  but  the  printed  list  of  their  names 
was  not  yet  ready  and  in  consequence  nobody 
knew  anybody.  I  was  placed  near  the  end  of 
a  long  table,  the  seat  to  my  left  being  vacant. 
At  the  end  of  the  table,  quite  near  me,  there 
sat  a  big,  broad-shouldered,  sandy-haired  man, 
whose  nose  (like  that  of  Michael  Angelo  and  of 
Thackeray)  had  been  damaged.  At  my  right 
hand  sat  a  young  lady,  and  opposite  me  sat  a 
very  angry-eyed  man  of  about  sixty.  While  I 


CHIEFLY  PERSONAL  xliii 

was  chatting,  quietly  enough,  with  the  young 
lady,  the  man  opposite  shouted  out,  "Oh,  hold 
your  tongue!"  and  to  the  young  lady  he  said, 
"Don't  listen  to  that  old  fool!" 

I  was  puzzled  by  such  an  unwarranted  aggres- 
sion by  a  total  stranger,  but  I  decided  to  "make 
haste  slowly"  in  preventing  its  repetition;  so  I 
did  nothing  at  that  time.  At  the  seven  o'clock 
dinner,  just  as  I  had  taken  my  place  at  the  table, 
the  big  sandy -haired  man  came  to  me  and  said 
that  as  there  was  a  vacant  chair  to  my  left  he  would 
like  to  occupy  it  during  our  voyage  if  I  did  not 
object.  Of  course  I  answered  that  I  would  be  very 
glad  to  have  his  company,  and  down  he  sat  beside 
me.  My  enemy  opposite  had  evidently  taken  a 
strong  dislike  to  me,  I  know  not  why,  but  he 
was  again  gratuitously  rude.  After  the  dinner 
an  incident  occurred  which  resulted  in  insuring  to 
me  the  peace  and  quiet  which  an  inoffensive  pas- 
senger is  entitled  to  while  traveling  on  a  steamer. 
The  Big  Fellow  strode  up  to  my  enemy  and  said 
to  him:  "See  here!  You  have  been  very  rude,  at 
the  table,  to  my  friend  Mr.  Keppel,  and  I  cannot 
see  that  he  has  given  you  any  offense.  Now,  if 
this  should  happen  again  I  warn  you  that  you 
will  have  to  reckon  with  me."  "  Fow,"  said  the 
other,  "who  are  you?'9  My  champion  went  close 
to  my  enemy  and  said  with  quiet  significance, 
"My  name  is  Bob  Fitzsimmons." 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF 
ENGRAVING 

Reprinted,  by  permission,  from  Harper's  Magazine. 
Copyright,  1878,  by  Harper  and  Brothers 

\  LTHOUGH  the  engraving  of  ornamental 
JL\.  designs  upon  metal  can  be  traced  back  to 
remote  antiquity,  yet  the  valuable  discovery  that 
impressions  from  engraved  plates  could  be  taken 
upon  paper  was,  like  many  valuable  discoveries, 
accidental.  This  was  the  epoch  as  important  to 
art  as  the  discovery  of  printing  was  to  knowledge, 
and  both  for  the  same  reason,  for  now  impressions 
from  plates,  like  impressions  from  type,  could  be 
multiplied  and  diffused  without  limit.  This  im- 
portant invention  of  printing  from  engraved 
plates  is  claimed  for  Tommaso  Finiguerra,  a 
Florentine  goldsmith.  Finiguerra  practised  the 
decoration  of  gold  and  silver  plates  by  filling 
engraved  lines  with  a  black  enamel,  which  was 
allowed  to  harden,  and  to  obtain  the  effect  of  the 
design,  it  was  his  custom  to  rub  soot  and  oil  into 
the  incisions  before  permanently  filling  them  with 
enamel,  or  niello.  One  of  his  plates  thus  filled 
was  by  chance  laid  face  downward  upon  a  sheet 
of  paper,  and  when  it  was  taken  up  —  behold ! 
the  first  impression  from  an  engraved  plate  was 
seen  upon  the  white  surface. 

i 


2     THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

The  hint  thus  given  was  quickly  improved  by 
the  artists  of  that  age;  engraving  upon  metal 
plates  began  to  take  rank  as  a  fine  art,  and  the 
golden  age  of  engraving  dawned  upon  the  world. 
To-day,  four  centuries  after,  the  ray  of  light 
which  prints  its  image  upon  the  sensitive  plate 
of  the  camera  falls  aslant  upon  the  fading  glory 
of  the  art.  Raphael  Morghen,  one  of  the  last  of 
the  great  engravers,  died  in  1833,  and  in  1839 
Daguerre  announced  to  the  world  the  discovery 
of  photography. 

The  engraving,  according  to  Charles  Sumner, 
is  not  a  copy  or  imitation  of  the  original  repre- 
sented, but  a  translation  into  another  language, 
where  light  and  shade  supply  the  place  of  color. 
It  does  not  reproduce  the  original  picture  except 
in    drawing    and    expression;    but    as    Bryant's 
"Homer"  and  Longfellow's  "Dante"  are  presenta- 
tions of  the  great  originals  in  another  language, 
so  the  engraving  is  a  presentation  of  the  painting 
in  another  material,  which  is  another  language. 
And  it  is  here,  as  the  translator  and  multiplier 
of  the  masterpieces  of  painting,  that    engraving 
I  finds  its  true  sphere;  so  that  we  may  define  its 
I  excellence  thus:  a  great  painting  reproduced  by 
la,  great  engraver. 

The  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century  was 
prolific  in  artistic  genius.  Truly,  "there  were 
giants  in  those  days."  Albrecht  Diirer,  the  father 
of  the  German  school,  was  born  in  1471;  that 
sublime  genius  Michael  Angelo  in  1474;  Titian, 
the  great  Venetian  colorist,  in  1477;  Raphael, 


THE   ANGEL  OF  THE   ANNUNCIATION 

Size  of  the  original  print,  6y9^  by  4f  inches. 
Designed  and  engraved  by  Martin  Schongauer  (1445P-1499?) 


THE   NATIVITY 

Size  of  the  original  print,  6j  by  6j  inches. 
Designed  and  engraved  by  Martin  Schongauer  (1445P-1499?) 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING     3 

"the  prince  of  painters,"  in  1483.  Rubens  was 
born  more  than  three  hundred  years  ago;  and 
Rembrandt  "the  inspired  Dutchman,"  in  1606., 
Those  great  masters  fully  understood  the  value 
of  that  art  which  could  multiply  their  designs. 
And  so  we  find  Raphael  employing  Marcantonio 
Raimondi  to  engrave  for  him;  Titian  had  Cor-* 
nelius  Cort  working  in  his  own  house;  Rubens 
formed  and  educated  a  notable  school  of  engravers, 
while  Durer  and  Rembrandt  engraved  their  own 
designs  in  such  a  masterly  manner  that,  though  so 
unlike,  they  are  the  two  greatest  names  in  engra- 
ving. 

A  fine  engraving  is,  perhaps  more  than  any 
other  work  of  fine  art,  a  triumph.  What  the 
painter  achieves  by  the  use  of  a  thousand  tints, 
and  the  sculptor  or  architect  by  projecting  his 
thought  with  the  substantial  attribute  of  form,' 
the  engraver  presents  with  equal  effect  upon^ 
the  plain  surface  of  the  paper  with  printer's-ii 
alone,  nor  can  the  "reason  persuade  the  sight  that] 
the  scene  before  it  is  only  a  white  plane  lined  and] 
dotted  with  black. 

These  two  methods  of  printing,  however,  so 
far  from  being  identical,  are  the  opposite  of  each 
other.  Typography,  wood-cuts,  and  lithographs 
are  printed  from  the  hiked  surface,  while  line 
engravings,  mezzotints,  and  etchings  print  from 
the  cut  away  parts  of  the  plate;  so  that  what  comes 
out  black  in  typography  comes  out  white  from 
engraved  plates,  and  vice  versa.  And  while  the 
printing-press  actually  runs  by  steam,  the  printing 


4  THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

of  each  impression  from  an  engraved  or  etched 

plate  is  a  slow  and  difficult  process.     No  printer 

lean  get  a  good  proof  from  a  bad  or  inartistic 

[plate;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  a  maladroit  printer 

[would  ruin  the  effect  of  the  finest  plate  in  the 

J  world. 

At  the  present  day  no  one  thinks  of  inquiring 
who  was  the  engraver  of  a  plate  after  Landseer, 
or  Turner,  or  Meissonier;  often  these  modern 
prints  are  no  better  than  composite  pieces  of 
manufacture,  combining  machine-work  with  line, 
etching,  and  mezzotint;  but  the  old  engravers 
were  themselves  consummate  artists,  who  ranked 
as  to  skill  with  the  great  painters  whose  works 
they  translated,  and  some  of  them  even  improved 
on  their  archetypes,  emphasizing  merits  and  sup- 
.pressing  defects.  Such  engravings  are  designated 
not  so  much  from  the  painter  as  from  the  engraver, 
so  that  we  speak  of  Miiller's  "Sistine  Madonna," 
and  not  Raphael's,  and  Morghen's  "Last  Supper," 
and  not  Leonardo  da  Vinci's. 

A  recent  French  writer  has  well  said  that  an 
engraving  fills  a  place  midway  between  a  paint- 
ing and  a  book:  while  it  lacks  color,  it  compen- 
sates for  this  by  its  more  familiar  character;  it 
is  more  portable,  it  is  more  companionable,  it 
does  not  require  to  be  hung  in  a  certain  light,  and, 
more  than  all,  it  is  attainable,  and  may  be  pos- 
sessed by  almost  any  one.  Thus  the  sublime 
compositions  of  the  old  masters,  once  confined 
to  the  galleries  of  the  great,  or  only  known  to 
the  world  by  inadequate  copies,  are,  thanks  to 


• 

-•      <  ••   v.  '.-S 

• 


THE    NATIVITY 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7  by  5  inches. 
Designed  and  engraved  by  Albrecht  Diirer  in  the  year  1504 

During  the  past  four  centuries  Diirer  has  remained  the  supreme  master  of  the 
German  school,  both  as  painter  and  as  engraver  on  copper  and  on  wood. 


THE  KNIGHT,    DEATH,    AND   THE   DEVIL 

Size  of  the  original  print,  9^  by  7^  inches. 
Designed  and  engraved  by  Albrecht  Diirer  in  1513. 

In  the  Uffizi  Gallery,  Florence,  there  is  Diirer's  original  drawing  of  the  magnificent 
horse  on  which  the  knight  is  mounted.  In  every  possible  direction  there  are 
straight  lines  drawn  through  the  figure  of  the  horse,  and  the  measurements 
are  carefully  written  down  by  Diirer.  This  shows  us  that  masterpieces  are 
not  made  at  random,  but  are  the  result  of  serious  and  hard  study. 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING     5 

the  old  engravers,  left  as  an  inheritance  to  all 
lovers  of  beauty;  the  engraving  goes  where  the 
painting  cannot  go,  and  where  the  painting  is 
silent  the  engraving  speaks  with  the  familiarity 
of  a  printed  book.  These  translations  of  the 
painters'  masterpieces,  coming  down  through  the 
loving  hands  of  generation  after  generation  of  art- 
collectors,  must  be  to  us  in  America  one  of  the 
chief  sources  of  our  art  knowledge,  as  they  are  in 
some  instances  the  only  records  of  originals  which 
have  long  since  perished. 

It  is  the  fault  of  some  writers  on  the  subject, 
as  it  is  the  infirmity  of  some  zealous  collectors, 
to  attach  importance  to  mere  rarity  rather  than 
to  artistic  excellence.  An  intelligent  amateur, 
in  speaking  on  this  subject,  has  said  that  it  was 
sometimes  this  very  inferiority  that  caused  their 
rarity,  because  when  they  were  first  produced 
they  did  not  please  the  purchasers,  and  so  only 
a  few  were  printed;  and  he  emphasized  his  point 
with  a  pun  by  adcling:  "They  are  rare  because 
they  are  not  well  done" 

But  apart  from  its  higher  merit  as  a  picture, 
a  good  engraving  is  a  marvel  of  beautiful  mechan- 
ism. It  requires  an  amount  of  painstaking  skill 
and  labor  that  seems  almost  incredible.  Fried- 
rich  Miiller  devoted  six  years  of  constant  work 
to  his  great  plate  of  the  "Sistine  Madonna,"  and 
many  important  plates  have  occupied  their  en- 
gravers from  three  to  five  years.  For  this  reason, 
if  for  no  other,  fine  line  engraving  may  be  almost 
numbered  among  the  lost  arts;  for  when  a  paint- 


6  THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

ing  can  be  photographed  in  three  minutes,  or 
copied  in  chromo-lithography  or  machine-work  at 
a  very  small  expense,  no  engraver  could  afford 
to  spend  years  in  study  and  preparation,  and  then 
years  working  upon  a  single  plate.  Owing  to 
these  causes,  two  of  our  nineteenth-century 
painters,  Durand  and  Casilear,  abandoned  line 
engraving,  though  they  were  both  engravers  of 
(marked  ability.  Thus  the  masterpieces  of  the 
engraver's  art  must  be  the  masterpieces  always. 

In  line  engraving,  which  was  long  esteemed  as 
the  highest  style  of  the  art,  the  effect  is  produced 
by  incisions  on  a  copper  or  steel  plate,  cut  by 
the  graver  or  burin,  and  the  various  effects  of 
light  and  shade,  distance  and  perspective,  the 
textures  of  draperies  and  accessories,  flesh-tints, 
and  the  expression  of  features,  are  all  produced 
by  a  corresponding  variety  of  lines  engraved 
into  the  plate.  To  take  an  impression  from  this 
plate  its  surface  is  covered  with  a  thick  oily  ink 
so  that  all  the  lines  are  effectually  rilled.  As  this 
smears  the  entire  plate,  the  printer  next  rubs  off 
the  superfluous  ink,  first  with  a  cloth,  and  then 
with  the  palms  of  his  hands.  The  surface  is 
now  clean,  but  the  ink  still  remains  in  all  the  lines 
or  incisions.  The  sheet  of  paper  which  is  to 
receive  the  impression  is  then  damped,  and  laid 
upon  the  plate,  and  both  are  passed  under  a 
roller  press,  the  result  being  that  the  ink  is  trans- 
ferred from  the  incisions  in  the  plate  to  the  sheet 
of  paper. 

Next  in  importance  to  line  engraving  comes 


MELANCHOLIA 

Size  of  the  original  print,  9T9^  by  7f  inches. 
Designed  and  engraved  by  Albrecht  Dtirer  in  the  year  1514. 

Many  unavailing  attempts  have  been  made  to  explain  the  meaning  of  this  beauti- 
ful print.  Dlirer  was  a  mystic,  and  we  may  question  if  he  himself  knew  what 
it  meant! 


ADAM  AND   EVE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  9£  by  7-&  inches. 
Designed  and  engraved  by  Albrecht  Diirer  in.  1504. 

Diirer  was  so  proud  of  this  print  that,  for  the  only  time,  he  records  in  the  tablet 
which  hangs  from  the  tree,  that  it  was  done  in  Nuremberg.  He  must  have 
seen  some  drawing  of  the  ancient  Greek  statue  of  the  Apollo  Belviclere  before 
he  engraved  this  picture  of  Adam. 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING     7 

etching,  and  many  authorities  give  this  process 
the  first  place.  In  etching  the  plate  is  first  cov- 
ered with  a  coat  of  wax  or  resin,  which  is  dis- 
solved by  heat,  and  allowed  to  harden.  The 
tool  used  is  the  point,  or  etching-needle.  With 
this  the  lines  and  dots  of  the  design  are  traced 
through  the  wax  on  to  the  surface  of  the  copper 
plate.  Aquafortis  is  then  poured  on,  and  this 
powerful  acid  eats  into  the  copper  wherever  a 
line  has  been  made,  the  wax  meanwhile  protect- 
ing the  other  parts.  After  repeated  bitings  by 
aquafortis,  according  to  the  effect  desired,  the 
plate  is  cleaned  from  the  acid  and  wax,  and  is 
then  ready  to  be  printed  from  in  the  same  manner 
as  a  line  engraving. 

From  the  difference  of  the  two  processes  it 
will  be  seen  that  the  characteristics  of  line  engra- 
ving are  beautiful  precision  and  symmetry  of 
form,  while  etching  excels  in  freedom  and  sketchi- 
ness;  and  while  long  years  of  practice  are  essen- 
tial to  the  former ^  the  latter  can  be  produced, 
after  a  little  technical  study,  by  any  one  who  can 
draw.  Hence  when  a  painter  undertakes  to 
engrave  one  of  his  own  designs,  he  naturally 
resorts  to  etching;  on  the  other  hand,  when  a  pro- 
fessional engraver  undertakes  to  make  an  elaborate 
reproduction  of  an  important  painting,  line  engra- 
ving is  employed. 

The  mezzotint  process  was  carried  to  great  per- 
fection more  than  a  century  ago  in  England.  The 
plate  is  first  roughened  uniformly  all  over,  so 
that  if  it  were  then  inked  and  printed  from,  it 


8     THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

would  print  a  solid  black;  the  rough  surface  is 
then  scraped  away  according  to  the  effect  required, 
those  parts  most  smoothed  taking  up  the  least 
ink,  and  so  producing  the  highest  lights,  while 
the  parts  least  scraped  away  produce  the  deepest 
shadows. 

In  stipple  engraving  the  effect  is  produced 
entirely  by  dots  or  holes  punched  into  the  plate; 
it  has  been  much  used  for  the  flesh  parts  in  por- 
traits, but  very  few  of  the  prints  in  stipple-work 
have  a  reputation  in  art,  except  the  graceful  and 
dainty  prints  engraved  by  Bartolozzi  and  his 
school  towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Bank-note  engraving  has  reached  its  highest 
perfection  in  America.  The  plates  and  dies  are 
engraved  on  steel  in  the  line  manner;  in  addition 
to  this,  beautiful  mechanical  effects  are  produced 
by  the  complicated  geometrical  lathe.  Except 
with  regard  to  bank-note  work,  the  phrase  "a 
steel  engraving"  is  only  a  figure  of  speech;  what 
are  so  called  are  really  engraved  on  copper,  which 
.is  a  much  mellower  material  to  work  in  than  steel. 
|A11  the  great  prints  of  former  ages  were  done  on 
t  copper  plates,  and  not  on  steel,  as  is  sometimes 
supposed. 

In  briefly  reviewing  the  most  famous  engravers 
we  may  divide  them  for  convenience  into  two 
general  classes  —  those  who  flourished  before  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  those  who 
appeared  in  the  succeeding  centuries.  The  works 
of  the  former  class,  representing  as  they  do  the 
birth,  infancy,  and  youth  of  the  art,  are  peculiarly 


THE  HOLY  FAMILY 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7f  by  4  inches. 
Designed  and  engraved  by  Lucas  van  Leyden  (1494-1533). 

Lucas  van  Leyden,  contemporary  of  Diirer,  engraved  his  plates  with  such  deli- 
cate lines  that  they  yielded  very  few  good  proofs.  In  the  one  detail  of  per- 
spective, he  was  Diirer's  superior. 


PROGENIES  DIVVAY-  Q^INTVS  sic  CARQLVS  ILLE 

IzYlPERIb  CAESAR-  LVMINA-  LT  •  OR  A  TVLIT 
AET 


S  VAE  X  X  XI 

ANN     M  •  D  e  xxxl 


THE   EMPEROR  CHARLES  V 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8j  by  5^  inches. 
Designed  and  engraved  by  Barthel  Beham  in  1531. 

The  extremely  rare  First  State,  before  the  monogram.     Sir  Seymour  Haden,  who 
was  hostile  to  line-engraving,  declared  that  this  portrait  is  a  masterpiece. 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING     9 

interesting  to  the  studious  connoisseur;  they  in- 
clude nearly  all  the  famous  "painter-engravers" 
-  those  who  engraved  their  own  designs.  Among 
the  critical  books  of  reference  on  this  class  of 
artists  one  work  is  pre-eminent;  it  is  Le  Peintre- 
Graveur,  in  twenty-one  volumes,  by  Adam  Bartsch, 
who  was  the  curator  of  the  great  collection  at 
Vienna.  Bartsch's  work,  which  is  written  in 
French,  is  indispensable  to  every  collector  of 
the  older  engravings;  it  is  a  marvel  of  critical 
research,  giving  a  minute  description  of  all  the 
works  of  each  engraver,  and  describing  the  earlier 
and  later  "states"  of  each  plate,  as  well  as  desig- 
nating the  numerous  counterfeits  that  have  been 
made  upon  the  most  admired  old  prints;  but  as 
the  work  only  treats  of  the  artists  who  engraved 
their  own  designs,  it  has  no  information  upon 
the  great  line  engravers  who  have  reproduced  the 
masterpieces  of  painting.  As  a  general  book  of 
reference  upon  the  famous  engravers  as  well  as 
upon  the  great  painters,  Bryan's  Dictionary  of 
Painters  and  Engravers  is  considered  the  best. 

To  commence  with  the  earliest  engravers  of 
whom  we  have  any  record,  Finiguerra,  who  has 
been  already  mentioned  as  the  discoverer  of  the 
art  of  printing  from  engraved  plates,  took  im- 
pressions on  paper  about  the  year  1440.  One 
very  beautiful  print  of  his  is  preserved  in  the 
great  public  collection  in  Paris;  it  is  a  small  com- 
position representing  the  Nativity,  and  is  crowded 
with  figures.  His  immediate  followers  in  Italy 
were  Andrea  Mantegna,  who  was  born  at  Padua 


10         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

in  1431,  and  Baccio  Baldini,  who  was  his  con- 
temporary. Fifty  years  later  appeared  the  great- 
est of  the  old  Italian  engravers  in  Marcantonio 
Raimondi,  who  was  born  at  Bologna  in  1487,  and 
died  in  1536.  Among  collectors  of  the  oldest 
engravings,  Marcantonio  is  a  great  name,  ranking 
almost  with  Albrecht  Dlirer  and  Rembrandt.  Early 
in  his  career  he  attracted  the  attention  of  Raphael, 
and  that  master,  recognizing  the  value  of  engra- 
ving as  a  vehicle  for  multiplying  his  own  designs, 
gave  Marcantonio  employment  under  his  own 
supervision.  So  exquisitely  correct  is  the  drawing 
of  his  figures  that  connoisseurs  profess  to  see  the 
magic  hand  of  Raphael  himself  in  these  faultless 
outlines.  A  fine  impression  of  the  engraver's 
portrait  of  the  poet  Aretino,  the  friend  of  Titian, 
has  been  recently  sold  at  auction  in  London  for 
£780  sterling.  Marcantonio  was  the  founder  of 
a  renowned  school. 

Of  contemporary  German  engravers,  Martin 
Schongauer  comes  earliest.  His  prints,  which 
are  very  scarce  and  high-priced,  show  force  and 
originality,  as  well  as  great  technical  skill  in  the 
use  of  the  graver;  but  the  work  of  all  these 
early  German  masters  is  a  little  stiff  and  Gothic 
in  style,  though  indicating  an  admirable  sincerity 
and  directness  of  purpose. 

But  the  greatest  name  in  this  connection  is 
that  of  Albrecht  Diirer,  who  was  born  in  the  quaint 
old  city  of  Nuremberg  in  1471.  Diirer  found  the 
art  of  engraving  in  its  infancy,  and  carried  the 
technical  fineness  of  it  to  a  perfection  that  has 


PORTRAIT  OF  REMBRANDT  LEANING  UPON  A  SABRE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7-J  by  6j  inches. 

From  the  original  etching  by  Rembrandt,  etched  in  1634.  First  state  of  the 
plate,  before  the  copper  was  cut  to  an  oval.  In  this  state  of  the  plate,  four 
proofs  only  are  known.  This  illustration  was  photographed  from  the  proof 
in  the  old  royal  collection  of  the  kings  of  France.  At  the  auction  sale  in  Lon- 
don of  the  Holford  collection  another  proof  of  this  etching  sold  for  the  enor- 
mous price  of  £2000,  or  about  $10,000.  The  buyer  was  Lord  Rothschild. 


CLEMENT  DE  JONGHE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8i  by  6|  inches. 

From  the  original  etching  by  Rembrandt,  etched  in  1651.  Clement  de  Jonghe 
was  one  of  the  most  celebrated  publishers  of  his  time  in  Holland.  Many  of 
the  best  plates  of  the  best  etchers  —  Cornells  and  Jan  Visscher,  Rogman, 
Zeeman  and  Paul  Potter  —  bear  his  name  as  publisher.  The  beauty  of  effect 
and  felicity  of  pose  of  this  portrait  are  very  remarkable.  Rembrandt,  by  his 
art,  has  given  to  the  portrait  of  this  unpretending  print-seller  an  air  of 
melancholy  and  reverie  that  would  not  ill  become  a  philosopher  in  meditation. 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING    11 

never  been  surpassed.  His  journals  and  the 
records  of  his  life  show  him  to  have  been  a  devout, 
sincere,  and  true-hearted  man.  It  has  been 
recorded  by  his  friend  Pirkheimer  that  Diirer's 
life  was  embittered  and  shortened  by  that  dread- 
ful ill,  a  "nagging"  wife;  and  much  ink  has  been 
shed  to  prove,  on  the  one  hand,  that  Agnes  did, 
and,  on  the  other,  that  she  did  not,  lead  our 
artist  a  terrible  Me.  In  some  of  Diirer's  best 
prints,  such  as  the  "Knight  of  Death"  and  the 
"Melancholia,"  there  is  a  mystical  obscurity 
that  has  piqued  and  baffled  the  curiosity  of  his 
most  earnest  students. 

Lucas  van  Leyden  was  the  friend  of  Diirer. 
His  prints,  while  retaining  their  individuality, 
are  of  the  same  general  character. 

It  was  not  till  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century  that  stars  of  the  first  magnitude  again 
appeared.  And  in  that  bright  galaxy  the  bright- 
est name  is  that  of  Rembrandt.  This  wonderful 
genius  was  born  in  Holland  in  1606.  Discarding 
the  slow  and  laborious  practice  of  the  burin,  he 
had  recourse  to  etching,  which  process  he  carried 
to  a  height  which  places  him  alone  as  the  great 
representative  etcher  for  all  time. 

Rembrandt's  etchings  exhibit  the  same  quali- 
ties and  defects  as  his  paintings.  He  despised 
grace  and  beauty  of  form  as  we  now  understand 
them.  His  figures  are  uncouth  and  clumsy.  An 
ugly  old  woman  was  to  him  a  far  more  attractive 
model  than  a  fair  young  girl;  but  he  saw  and 
expressed  the  dignity  of  old  age  and  wrinkles  as 


12         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

no  artist  before  or  since  has  done;  and  the  magic 
effect  of  his  light  and  shade,  the  sincerity  and 
truthfulness  of  his  composition,  and  the  felici- 
tous effect  of  his  apparently  random  lines,  all 
bear  the  stamp  of  a  great  master. 

As  an  example  of  his  genius,  the  etching  of 
Christ  presented  by  Pilate  to  the  people,  known 
as  the  "Great  Ecce  Homo,"  may  be  cited.  It 
is  a  grand  composition:  the  surging  mass  of  the 
populace  in  the  foreground;  the  cruel  priests  and 
Pharisees  importuning  Pilate;  Pilate  himself, 
false,  vacillating,  and  temporizing;  and,  above 
all,  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  crowned  with  thorns,  and 
looking  upward  with  a  wearied  and  hunted  expres- 
sion that  goes  straight  to  the  heart. 

Contemporary  with  Rembrandt  was  another 
Dutch  artist,  Cornelis  Visscher,  who  combined 
in  his  prints  the  graver  and  etching-point  in  an 
original  and  very  effective  manner.  His  best 
engravings  are  those  from  his  own  designs.  Of 
these  the  "Pancake  Woman"  and  the  "Rat- 
Catcher"  are  the  most  admired.  But  we  turn 
with  a  peculiar  liking  to  his  less  pretentious 
print  of  an  old  cat  taking  her  noonday  nap,  while 
a  gray  old  veteran  of  the  rat-hole  steals  out  behind 
her.  This  quaint  little  print  has  the  effect  of  a 
familiar  family  portrait.  Visscher's  cat  is  our 
cat,  with  the  very  tricks  of  ear,  eye,  paw,  and 
f  whisker  proper  to  our  own  particular  Tabby  in 
her  philosophic  moods. 

At  this  period  the  genius  of  Rubens  began  to 
assert  itself,  and  no  artist  has  had  his  paintings 


.. 
S-g  S.SP 

o  *  S  fc 


•*•  '5  ^  "5;  §  - 


a  -c 

~ 


J  _••=.?•= 


K-2-E  v 
-*••=•  t 


a  e 


§J  «•«  a 

oj  -S  ££  8 

W  -iw^—  B 

O     *-    -    a    r- 

<5 

H 

go 
U   *f 


'E    ,.J5  o. 

C£I         Tl    ^  4^ 

a  «  g  ^  go 
r*  *j  g  <8  cs 

r^      a|    (      ^v      g  ^"* 

O    a  *    «3 


I 

•11s 


_<  v  v 

8  fl  ti 

°- 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING    13 

so  well  rendered  by  contemporary  engravers  as 
he.  The  best  engraver  of  the  Rubens  school  was 
Schelte  a  Bolswert;  but  Paul  Pontius,  Vorstermans, 
and  de  Jode  have  also  done  excellent  work. 

Leaving  the  Dutch  and  German  schools,  and 
turning  to  the  France  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  we  find  Louis  XIV  on  the  throne,  and 
Corneille,  Racine,  La  Fontaine,  and  Moliere 
adorning  literature  with  their  splendid  works,  and 
we  also  find  a  school  of  engravers  who  may  well 
claim  fellowship  in  genius  with  those  immortal 
names. 

These  eminent  artists  chiefly  excelled  in  the 
delineation  of  the  human  face;  never  before  nor 
since  have  such  portraits  been  produced.  They 
are  embellished  with  all  the  resources  of  the  art. 
Many  of  those  prints  represent  personages  who 
then  filled  a  large  place  in  the  eyes  of  the  world, 
but  whose  names  are  now  only  remembered  in 
connection  with  their  portraits;  but  we  have  also 
preserved  to  us  the  "'lineaments  of  men  such  as 
La  Fontaine,  Colbert,  and  Bossuet,  whose  places 
in  the  Temple  of  Fame  are  assured.  Art  at  this 
period  was  elaborate  and  florid,  as  were  literature, 
manners,  and  dress,  and  those  engravers,  to 
whom  no  technical  difficulty  was  an  obstacle, 
reveled  in  the  reproduction  of  costumes  and 
accessories.  The  personage  represented  is  usually 
resplendent  with  all  the  bravery  of  fur,  lace, 
brocade,  and  velvet,  while  all  the  surroundings 
are  rich  and  gorgeous. 

Of  these  engravers,  Gerard  Edelinck  deserves 


14         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

a  high  place.  Born  at  Antwerp  in  1627,  he 
was,  while  yet  a  young  man,  invited  to  Paris  by 
Colbert,  the  great  minister,  who  did  so  much  to 
encourage  art,  and  during  the  remainder  of  a  life 
prolonged  to  eighty  years  he  was  identified  with 
the  French  school.  Edelinck  was  taken  into  the 
King's  service,  had  a  pension  settled  on  him,  and 
later  he  received  a  patent  of  nobility.  Of  his 
numerous  portraits,  that  of  Philippe  de  Cham- 
paigne  is  allowed  to  be  the  finest;  but  there  are 
others  of  great  merit,  such  as  that  of  his  patron 
Colbert,  Van  den  Baugart  the  sculptor,  the 
architect  Mansard,  Pierre  de  Montarsis,  and  Dil- 
gerus.  Edelinck  did  not  confine  himself,  how- 
ever, to  portraits.  His  print  of  the  "Fight  for 
the  Standard,"  after  the  celebrated  cartoon  of 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  may  be  taken  as  a  model  of 
bold  and  vigorous  work,  while  his  "Moses," 
after  Philippe  de  Champaigne,  is  full  of  serene 
beauty.  This  latter  was  engraved  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Nanteuil,  an  engraver  who  well  deserves 
to  rank  with  the  best. 

During  the  forty-eight  years  of  Nanteuil's 
life  he  executed  as  many  as  280  plates,  nearly 
all  portraits,  and  most  of  them  from  his  own 
drawings  from  life.  Nanteuil's  abilities  were 
refined  by  a  classical  education,  and  his  correct 
taste  restrained  him  from  running  into  the  prevail- 
ing fashion  of  meretricious  ornamentation.  He 
usually  represented  his  personages  within  a  neat 
oval  of  about  seven  by  nine  inches.  His  works 
illustrate  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV,  and  are  all, 


BEGGARS  AT  THE  DOOR  OF  A  HOUSE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  6T^  by  5^  inches. 

From  the  original  etching  by  Rembrandt,  etched  in  1648.  In  the  opinion  of  con- 
noisseurs this  is  one  of  the  most  perfect  of  Rembrandt's  masterly  scenes  from 
the  life  of  the  poor.  When  Professor  Legros  of  the  London  University  re- 
marked to  me  that  he  considered  this  to  be  Rembrandt's  very  finest  etching, 
I  answered:  "That  is  because  it  is  so  like  one  of  your  own."  To  this  he  made 
answer:  "You  pay  me  an  immense  compliment."  F.  X. 


POMPONE  DE  BELLIEVRE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  12J  by  9$  inches. 
From  the  line-engraving  by  Robert  Nanteuil  (1630-1678),  after  the  painting  by 

Charles  le  Brun. 
In  the  opinion  of  connoisseurs  this  is  the  most  beautiful  portrait  in  all  line-engraving. 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING    15 

without  exception,  fine.  His  print  of  Pompone 
de  Bellievre  is  considered  by  some  authorities 
to  be  the  most  beautiful  engraved  portrait  that 
exists.  In  this  it  contests  the  palm  with 
Edelinck's  Philippe  de  Champaigne,  Masson's 
"  Gray  -haired  Man,"  and  Drevet's  Bossuet.  This 
portrait  of  Pompone  de  Bellievre,  on  account  of  its 
rarity,  is  dear  and  difficult  to  procure;  but  there 
are  others  by  Nanteuil  more  easily  found  that 
may  well  serve  as  specimens  of  his  beautiful  and 
artistic  work.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned 
the  Due  de  Nemours,  Le  Tellier,  Rene  de  Lon- 
geuil,  the  Marquis  de  Maisons,  Pierre  Lallemant, 
and  Louis  XIV. 

Antoine  Masson  was  born  in  1636,  six  years 
later  than  Nanteuil.  For  brilliant  hardihood  of 
line,  Masson  is  conspicuous,  but,  in  his  larger 
portraits  especially,  his  very  ability  defeated  its 
object,  for  he  made  the  accessories  so  brilliant  as 
sometimes  to  call  the  eye  away  from  the  features 
themselves.  One  of  his  smaller  portraits,  how- 
ever —  that  of  Brisacier,  known  as  the  "  Gray- 
haired  Man"  -ranks  as  a  masterpiece;  while  it 
is  a  marvel  of  technical  skill,  it  is  at  the  same 
time  free  from  the  bizarre  effect  of  some  of  his 
life-size  heads. 

Soon  after  the  death  of  Edelinck  the  family 
of  D  re  vet  appeared.  The  elder  Drevet  produced 
some  fine  works,  notably  the  large  full-length 
portrait  of  Le  Grand  Monarque,  Louis  XIV. 
That  much-flattered  potentate  is  represented 
standing  in  all  the  glory  of  ermine,  lace,  and  wig, 


16         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

his  face  indicating  the  unbounded  conceit  and 
selfishness  which  were  so  characteristic  of  him.  It 
is  with  this  portrait  that  Thackeray  made  such  a 
felicitous  hit  in  his  Paris  Sketch-book,  where  he 
represents,  side  by  side,  first  Louis  le  Grand  in 
all  his  glory;  then  a  miserable  little  old  man;  and 
thirdly,  the  same  gorgeous  habiliments,  wig,  and 
high-heeled  shoes,  but  with  the  man  left  out  of 
them. 

The  younger  Drevet  even  improved  on  the 
splendid  technics  of  his  predecessors  —  gilding  their 
refined  gold.  In  the  representation  of  such  mate- 
rials as  fur  and  lace  he  is  unequaled,  though  he 
duly  subordinated  all  to  the  features  of  his  sub- 
jects. All  this  engraver's  works  are  so  fine  that 
it  is  not  easy  to  designate  the  best;  but  his  full- 
length  portrait  of  the  eloquent  Bishop  Bossuet  is 
a  masterpiece;  while  still  more  interesting  is  that 
of  the  beautiful  and  ill-fated  tragedienne  Adrienne 
Lecouvreur,  whose  love  for  Marechal  Saxe,  and 
untimely  death,  are  themselves  a  tragedy  more 
affecting  than  any  she  simulated  on  the  stage. 
The  younger  Drevet  died  at  Paris  in  1739,  at  the 
early  age  of  forty-two,  and  with  him  closed  the 
golden  age  of  French  engraving. 

But  Paris  soon  again  became  the  center  of  the 
art,  which  was  quickened  into  new  life  by  an 
engraver  of  original  genius,  who  attracted  to 
him  pupils  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  so  that  he 
became  the  father  of  the  great  school  of  engravers 
that  flourished  in  France,  Germany,  and  Italy 
about  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  This 


HENRI-AUGUSTE   DE  LOMENIE   DE   BRIENNE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  14^  by  lOf  inches. 

From  the  original  line-engraving  by  Robert  Nanteuil.  Engraved  in  1660.  Nan- 
teuil  is  now  almost  universally  admitted  to  be  the  greatest  portrait-engraver 
in  the  history  of  art.  This  portrait  was  drawn  from  life  by  Nanteuil. 


GUILLAUME  DE   BRISACIER    ("THE   GRAY-HAIRED   MAN") 

Size  of  the  original  print,  13J  by  10J  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  Antoine  Masson  (1636-1700),  after  the  painting  by 
Nicolas  Mignard.  Engraved  in  1664.  This  portrait  is  known  as  "The  Gray- 
Haired  Man, "  on  account  of  the  beautiful  engraving  of  the  hair.  It  is  ac- 
counted the  masterpiece  of  Masson,  and  one  of  the  four  finest  portraits  in 
engraving. 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING    17 

eminent  master  was  Johann  Georg  Wille,  who  was 
born  at  Kbnigsberg  in  1717,  but  establishing  him- 
self in  Paris,  he  devoted  his  long  life  of  ninety -one 
years  to  the  art  in  which  he  so  greatly  excelled. 
His  neat  and  careful  style  was  adapted  to  pictures 
of  the  school  of  Gerard  Dow,  as  well  as  to  elab- 
orate portraits,  and  there  are  few  engravers  whose 
works  have  been  more  eagerly  sought  and  more 
universally  admired.  A  complete  mention  of  the 
favorite  prints  by  this  artist  would  exhaust  the 
entire  catalogue  of  his  works.  His  "Satin  Gown" 
and  the  "Travelling  Musicians"  are  his  acknowl- 
edged masterpieces,  but  not  less  worthy  of  praise 
are  the  "Death  of  Marc  Antony,"  "La  Liseuse," 
and  "La  DeVideuse"  (two  studies  of  the  mother 
of  Gerard  Dow),  "The  Family  Concert,"  and 
the  small  pair  entitled  "The  Good  Woman  of 
Normandy"  and  her  "Sister"  -two  "magnifi- 
cently ugly  old  women"  —  from  the  designs  of 
P.  A.  Wille,  the  engraver's  son. 

The  subsequent  -history  of  line  engraving  on 
the  continent  of  Europe  may  be  almost  traced 
in  the  history  of  the  pupils  of  Wille.  Clement 
Charles  Bervic  added  boldness  to  the  painstaking 
style  of  his  master.  His  pair  of  "The  Education 
of  Achilles,"  after  Regnault,  and  "The  carrying  off 
of  Dejanira,"  after  Guido  Reni,  are  superb,  as  is 
also  the  large  full-length  portrait  of  Louis  XVI. 
This  portrait  was  finished  shortly  before  the  exe- 
cution of  that  unhappy  monarch.  After  he  had 
suffered  on  the  guillotine,  poor  Bervic  was  seized 
by  the  Paris  mob  and  charged  with  the  crime  of 


18         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

having  engraved  the  tyrant's  portrait,  and  to 
save  his  life  he  was  obliged  to  take  the  precious 
plate,  into  which  he  had  put  years  of  work,  ham- 
mer it  double,  and  fling  it  into  the  river  Seine. 
Here  it  lay  till  order  was  restored,  when  it  was 
taken  out  and  put  into  shape  again;  but  all  the 
subsequent  impressions  taken  from  it  bear  a 
faint  streak  across  the  middle  —  a  significant 
record  of  the  terrible  French  Revolution. 

Auguste  Boucher  Desnoyers  strayed  further 
than  Bervic  from  the  traditions  of  Wille,  and 
yet  he  is  an  engraver  of  the  first  order;  no  other 
has  rendered  the  works  of  Raphael  so  well  as  he. 
His  full-length  portrait  of  Napoleon  in  his  coro- 
nation robes  is  a  magnificent  engraving  and  a 
worthy  pendant  to  Bervic's  Louis  XVI,  while 
his  print  of  blind  Belisarius,  after  Gerard,  may  be 
taken  as  a  typical  example  of  line  engraving  at 
its  best. 

Another  of  Wille's  pupils  was  John  Gotthard 
Mtiller,  whose  abilities  were  overshadowed  by 
those  of  his  own  son  and  pupil,  Friedrich  Mliller, 
This  wonderful  engraver  was  born  at  Stuttgart 
in  1783.  His  short  life  is  identified  with  his 
great  work  of  engraving  Raphael's  "Sistine  Ma- 
donna," which  places  him  at  the  head  of  all 
modern  engravers.  Six  years  before  his  death 
he  was  commissioned  by  Rittner,  of  Dresden,  to 
engrave  that  inspired  picture,  which  is  the  pride 
of  the  Dresden  Gallery.  His  very  existence 
seemed  wrapped  up  in  the  execution  of  this  plate; 
he  worked  upon  it  day  and  night  with  the  same 


PHILIPPE  DE  CHAMPAIGNE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  16f  by  12f  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  Gerard  Edelinck  (1640-1707),  after  the  painting  by 
himself.  This  engraving  was  done  in  the  year  1676,  and  ranks  as  one  of  the 
four  finest  portraits  ever  engraved. 


NATHANAEL  DILGERUS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  12 j  by  85  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  Gerard  Edelinck,  dated  1683.  The  eminent  engraver 
Giuseppe  Longhi  calls  Edelinck  "the  prince  of  engraving"  ranking  him  even 
above  Nanteuil. 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING    19 

self-consuming  zeal  that  Mozart  expended  on 
the  "Requiem,"  which  proved  to  be  his  own. 
When  the  plate  was  finished  he  took  it  to  Ritt- 
ner;  but  the  man  of  business  refused  it,  on  the 
ground  that  the  lines  were  so  delicately  cut  that 
it  would  not  print  a  sufficient  number  of  impres- 
sions. Every  line  had  to  be  deepened;  and  this 
thankless  toil  broke  the  heart  of  poor  Miiller. 
He  bore  up  till  his  task  was  finished,  and  then  he 
sank  into  the  gloom  of  hopeless  insanity,  and 
died  the  very  day  that  the  first  proof  of  his  plate 
was  printed.  It  was  hung  over  his  bier  as  he 
lay  dead. 

But  it  was  in  Italy,  towards  the  end  of  the 
last  century,  that  engravers  arose  who,  from  our 
point  of  view,  have  given  the  world  the  most 
beautiful  examples  of  great  paintings  reproduced 
by  great  engravers.  Without  losing  sight  of  the 
precious  work  of  old  Diirer  and  his  contempo- 
raries, or  of  the  unsurpassed  technique  of  Ede- 
linck,  Drevet,  and  Wille,  yet  it  must  be  said  that 
among  the  best  examples  of  beautiful  pictures 
beautifully  engraved  are  to  be  found  the  works 
of  the  Italian  engravers  from  Raphael  Morghen 
to  Toschi.  They  may  not  be  such  curiosities  as 
the  earlier  prints,  but  to  all  who  love  a  work  of 
art  for  its  beauty  rather  than  for  its  rarity  they 
are  very  fine,  being  better  adapted  for  framing 
and  decorative  purposes  than  most  others. 

Probably  no  engraver  has  had  so  large  a  following 
of  admirers  as  Raphael  Morghen,  who  was  born 
at  Florence  in  1758.  This  is  partly  due  to  his 


20    THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

soft  and  captivating  style,  and  partly  to  his  excel- 
lent judgment  in  the  choice  of  subjects.  Morghen 
has  preserved  to  the  world  the  almost  extinct 
glories  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  "Last  Supper" 
in  a  plate  which  alone  would  have  made  the  repu- 
tation of  any  engraver.  Other  fine  examples  of 
his  work  are  the  "Aurora"  of  Guido,  and  the  pair, 
after  Poussin,  of  the  "Repose  in  Egypt"  and  the 
"Dance  of  the  Hours."  Of  his  numerous  por- 
traits, that  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci  is  the  most 
admired,  In  contemplating  this  serene  and  noble 
countenance  we  can  well  believe  that  this  grand 
old  man  was  great  as  painter,  philosopher,  and 
poet.  A  monument  in  the  Church  of  Santa 
Croce  —  the  Westminster  Abbey  of  Florence  - 
places  Raphael  Morghen  among  the  mighty  dead 
of  Italy.  He  had  numerous  imitators  and  scholars, 
of  whom  Folo  and  Bettelini  are  perhaps  the  best. 
But  a  contemporary  Milanese  engraver  was 
much  more  successful  as  the  founder  of  a  school. 
This  was  Giuseppe  Longhi  —  "  the  unsurpassed 
Longhi,"  as  a  recent  writer  calls  him.  He  and 
his  followers,  Garavaglia,  the  brothers  Anderloni, 
Rosaspina,  and  Gandolfi,  have  given  to  the  world 
some  of  the  very  best  reproductions  of  the  beauti- 
ful Italian  paintings.  From  their  grace  and  love- 
liness, they  are  specially  adapted  for  making  the 
home  beautiful.  As  examples  of  this  Milanese 
school  may  be  mentioned  Longhi's  "  Sposalizio," 
after  Raphael,  and  the  "Reclining  Magdalen," 
after  Correggio;  Pietro  Anderloni's  "Adoring 
Angels,"  after  Titian,  and  his  "Judgment  of 


PHILIP  V  KING  OF  SPAIN 
Size  of  the  original  print,  21  by  14f  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  Pierre  Drevet  (1663-1738),  after  the  painting  by 
Hyacinthe  Rigaud.  Engraved  in  1702.  Drevet  excelled  in  rendering  the 
accessories,  costume,  draperies,  lace,  etc.  His  portraits  are  less  severe  than 
those  of  Edelinck  and  less  clear  and  simple  than  those  of  Nanteuil,  but  he 
gave  to  the  face  individuality  of  character,  and  made  his  works  conspicuous 
among  those  of  the  great  engravers. 


JACQUES  BENIGNE  BOSSUET,  BISHOP  OF  MEAUX 

Size  of  the  original  print,  2    by  13i  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  Pierre  Imbert  Drevet  (1697-1739).  Engraved  in  1723. 
Drevet's  masterpiece,  and  one  of  the  four  finest  portrait  engravings.  "The 
portrait  of  Bossuet  has  everything  to  attract  and  charm."  Senator  Charles 
Sumner  in  "  The  Best  Portraits  in  Engraving." 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING          21 

Solomon,"  after  Raphael;  Garavaglia's  "Meeting 
of  Jacob  and  Rachel,"  after  Appiani;  Rosaspina's 
"Dance  of  the  Cupids,"  after  Albani;  and  Gan- 
dolfi's  "Sleeping  Cupid,"  from  his  own  design. 

The  last  of  the  great  Italian  engravers  was 
Paolo  Toschi,  pupil  of  Bervic,  who  was  himself 
a  pupil  of  Wille.  It  remained  for  Toschi  to 
discover  in  the  lovely  frescos  of  Correggio,  at 
Parma,  a  mine  of  the  richest  ore,  which  his  pre- 
decessors for  more  than  three  centuries  had  scarcely 
touched.  The  "Madonna  della  Scala,"  the  "In- 
coronata,"  and  the  pair  of  groups  of  cherubs  may 
be  cited  as  examples  of  what  Toschi  has  done 
for  Correggio  —  and  for  Art. 

Before  leaving  Italy  we  must  go  back  two  cen- 
turies to  consider  an  artist  who  was  a  "law  unto 
himself,"  in  that  his  prints  are  very  different  in 
manner  and  effect  from  all  others.  His  country- 
men, from  Morghen  to  Toschi,  loved  to  present 
the  soft  and  sensuous  beauty  of  the  human  face 
and  form,  but  Piranesi  devoted  his  life  to  etching 
the  magnificent  ruins  and  edifices  of  his  native 
country.  His  plates  are  of  large  size,  and  are 
etched  with  so  much  picturesque  boldness  and 
ruggedness  that  he  well  deserves  the  sobriquet 
of  the  Rembrandt  of  architecture. 

Nothing  has  yet  been  said  of  the  British  school. 
It  has,  however,  produced  at  least  two  line  engra- 
vers of  the  first  rank  —  Sir  Robert  Strange  and 
William  Sharp  —  and  in  the  two  departments  of 
mezzotint  and  landscape  it  far  excels  the  conti- 
nental prints  of  the  same  period. 


22         THE   GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Strange  had  a  style  of  his  own  —  rich,  soft,  and 
peculiarly  adapted  to  the  rendering  of  flesh-tints. 
He  has  engraved  more  than  fifty  important  plates, 
chiefly  after  the  great  Italian  masters.  All  of  his 
works  have  been  highly  esteemed  by  connoisseurs. 

William  Sharp,  who  was  born  in  London  in 
1746,  may  be  called  the  greatest  English  line 
engraver.  In  his  excellent  essay  on  "The  Best 
Portraits  in  Engraving,"  the  late  Charles  Sum- 
ner  says  of  Sharp:  "He  ascended  to  the  heights 
of  art,  showing  a  power  rarely  equaled;  his  works 
are  constant  in  character  and  expression,  with 
every  possible  excellence  of  execution:  face,  form, 
and  drapery  —  all  are  as  in  nature."  And  then 
he  goes  on  to  eulogize  Sharp's  famous  portrait 
of  John  Hunter,  the  eminent  surgeon,  calling  it 
"unquestionably  the  foremost  portrait  in  British 
art,  and  the  coequal  companion  of  the  great  por- 
traits of  the  past."  Among  other  masterpieces 
by  Sharp  may  be  mentioned  "The  Doctors  of 
the  Church,"  after  Guido,  and  the  very  striking 
print,  after  Salvator  Rosa,  of  Diogenes  looking 
for  an  honest  man.  In  this  we  see  the  grim  old 
cynic,  lantern  in  hand,  making  his  way  through 
the  market-place  of  Athens,  apparently  regard- 
less of  the  sneers  of  the  by-standers. 

In  London,  more  than  a  century  ago,  under  the 
judicious  management  of  John  Boydell,  the  pub- 
lisher, both  mezzotint  and  landscape  engraving 
reached  their  zenith.  Of  landscape  engravers, 
William  Woollett  is  facile  princeps;  his  works  have 
always  been  held  in  the  highest  estimation.  His 


ABEL  FRANCOIS  POISSON  DE  VANDIERES,  MARQUIS  DE  MARIGNY 

Size  of  the  original  print,  19^  by  13%  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  Johann  Georg  Wille  (1715-1808),  after  the  painting 
by  Jean  Louis  Tocque.  Engraved  in  1761.  He  was  a  brother  of  Madame  de 
Pompadour. 


LOUIS  XVI 

Size  of  the  original  print,  27f  by  20f  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  Charles  Clement  Bervic  (1756-1822),  after  the  painting 
by  A.  F.  Callet.     This  masterpiece  is  described  on  pages  17  and  18. 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING    23 

print  of  "Roman  Edifices  in  Ruins,"  after  Claude, 
is  perhaps  the  finest  landscape  in  engraving. 
Contemporary  with  Woollett  were  John  Brown, 
Mason,  Peake,  and  Vivares,  who  have  all  left 
us  excellent  landscapes. 

Americans  of  a  former  generation  made  a  great 
mistake  in  disparaging  all  mezzotint  engraving 
as  something  very  inferior.  This  general  opinion 
was  probably  occasioned  by  the  wretched  mezzo- 
tints which  were  produced  in  this  country; 
but  in  England  the  finest  prints  in  this  style  are, 
and  have  always  been,  highly  esteemed,  and  a 
fine  engraving  by  Earlom,  Green,  or  Pether  would 
convince  any  one  that  a  good  mezzotint  is  in  no 
respect  a  second-rate  production. 

While  in  our  day  high-class  line  engraving  has 
become  almost  a  lost  art,  a  school  of  artist-etchers 
has  arisen  in  France  which  has  done  great  things. 
These  etchings  come  directly  from  the  hand  that 
designs  them  while  the  art  idea  is  yet  warm  and 
fresh,  and  such  eminent  painters  as  Millet,  Meis- 
sonier,  and  Daubigny  have  not  disdained  to  resort 
to  the  etching-needle.  In  no  other  way  can  so 
much  really  good  art  be  owned  at  so  small  an 
outlay  as  in  a  portfolio  of  well-chosen  modern 
etchings.  Hamerton's  admirable  book  Etching 
and  Etchers  has  done  much  to  advance  the  taste 
for  these  beautiful  works. 

A  word  of  suggestion  as  to  the  selection  of 
engravings.  It  is  not  essential  that  they  must 
be  "proofs,"  though  proofs,  being  the  very  earli- 
est impressions  taken  from  the  plate,  are  naturally 


24         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

the  finest.  But  a  bad  or  worn  impression  should 
not  be  tolerated,  no  matter  how  cheap  it  is.  Such 
a  print  is  known  by  its  general  effect  of  weakness 
and  paleness;  the  figures  have  lost  their  rotundity, 
and  the  perspective  is  almost  gone.  Especially 
among  old  engravings  are  bad  impressions  to  be 
avoided. 

Modern  impressions  taken  from  such  old  plates 
as  still  exist  are  also  worthless.  A  print,  to  be  as 
it  should  be,  must  have  been  printed  at  the  time 
it  was  engraved.  Modern  impressions  are  readily 
known  by  the  paper  on  which  they  are  printed. 

Another  necessary  warning  is  against  "re- 
touched" impressions;  many  plates  have  been 
thus  ruined,  when,  after  they  have  begun  to  wear 
out  from  use,  they  have  been  recut  in  the  worn 
parts  by  incompetent  hands.  The  effect  of  a 
retouched  impression  is  dull,  heavy,  and  disagree- 
able; all  the  harmony  and  beauty  of  the  plate 
are  gone.  It  is  only  fine  original  impressions  in 
good  condition  that  worthily  represent  the  great 
engravers. 

What  is  to-day  the  situation  of  line  engraving, 
considered  as  a  fine  art?  There  is  perhaps  only 
one  man  of  recent  years  who  deserves  to  rank  with 
those  who  have  preceded  him,  and  he  —  the  Ger- 
man Mandel  —  said,  "When  I  die  there  will  be 
no  more."  A  century  ago,  Morghen,  Longhi, 
Bartolozzi,  and  Sharp  were  still  living.  But  the 
glory  has  departed  from  the  graver,  and  who  is 
he  who  will  take  it  up  where  the  Masters  laid  it 
down? 


ifimurr 

/  j>- 


THE  CARRYIXG-OFF  OF  DEJAXEIRA  BY  THE  CEXTAUR  NESSUS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  22  j  by  16  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  Charles  Clement  Bervic,  after  the  painting  by  Guido 
Reni,  now  in  the  Louvre,  Paris.  This  fine  engraving  won  the  decennial  prize 
awarded  bv  the  French  Institute  for  the  best  engraving  executed  between 
1800  and  1810. 


• 


NAPOLEON  THE  GREAT 

Size  of  the  original  print,  27  by  20  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  Auguste  Boucher  Desnoyers  (1779-1857),  after  the 
painting  by  Gerard.  "His  next  important  work  was  the  full-length  portrait 
of  the  Emperor  Napoleon  in  his  coronation  robes.  This  engraving  was  exhib- 
ited at  the  Salon  of  1810,  and  for  it  Desnoyers  received  no  less  than  fifty 
thousand  francs.  Napoleon  also  created  Desnoyers  a  baron." —  Bryan's 
Dictionary  of  Painters  and  Engravers. 


SOME  MASTERPIECES  OF  THE  OLD 
ENGRAVERS 

A  Lecture  delivered  at  Yale  University 

TT7HEN  last  I  had  the  honor  of  addressing 
V  V      the    Graduates'    Club    my    subject    was 
"Personal  Sketches  of  some  famous  Etchers." 

On  that  occasion  I  endeavored  to  interest  my 
audience  as  much  in  the  personality  of  etchers 
whom  I  have  known,  as  in  their  works.  Legiti- 
mate personal  gossip  of  eminent  persons  is  always 
interesting;  and  gossip,  when  it  does  not  degen- 
erate into  scandal,  is  nothing  more  and  nothing 
worse  than  the  interest  which  we  take  in  each 
other.  But  on  the  present  occasion  my  subject  is 
entirely  shut  off  from  this  direct  avenue  to  your 
attention  and  sympathy.  To  many  of  us,  the 
great  engravers  of  the  past  are  only  blank  names. 
I  may  say  of  them,  as  the  poet  Montgomery 
writes  of  the  forgotten  generations: 

"They  suffered;  but  their  pains  are  o'er  — 

Enjoyed;  but  their  delights  are  fled  — 
Had  friends;  their  friends  are  now  no  more  — 
And  foes;  their  foes  are  dead." 

And  so,  of  necessity,  if  I  can  succeed  in  inter- 
esting you  at  all,  it  must  be  through  the  eye 
rather  than  through  the  ear.  For  this  reason  I 

25 


26         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

shall  put  in  evidence  some  magnified  reproductions 
of  acknowledged  masterpieces  of  the  art  of  line 
engraving. 

The  engravings  we  shall  examine  cover  a  period 
of  more  than  four  hundred  years,  but,  by  a  sort 
of  paradox,  our  first  illustration  will  not  be  a  line 
engraving  at  all — but  an  etching,  and  an  essen- 
tially modern  etching  at  that;  as  unlike  a  line 
engraving  as  it  well  can  be.  We  all  know  that 
the  burin  is  the  graving  tool  with  which  all  line 
engraving  is  done.  And  this  etching,  done  by 
Felix  Buhot  of  Paris,  represents  The  Burial  of 
the  Burin. 

To  the  left  we  will  see  the  dead  burin  borne 
away  in  a  hearse  to  its  grave,  and  followed  by  the 
mourners;  above  will  be  seen  its  soul  carried  by 
Angels  to  Paradise;  while  to  the  right  Modern 
Illustration  comes  thundering  on  in  the  form  of 
an  express  train,  overwhelming  and  crushing  out 
all  opposition. 

With  regard  to  this  lively  Frenchman's  allegory, 
I  am  compelled  to  say  in  the  pithy  words  of  old 
Polonius: 

"Tis  true  'tis  pity;  pity  'tis,  'tis  true!" 

The  Burin  is  buried.  Line  engraving  is  dead. 
A  very  few  of  the  famous  engravers  have  sur- 
vived till  quite  recently.  Two  years  ago,  in 
Paris,  I  saw  Henriquel-Dupont,  and  he  was  still 
erect  and  handsome  at  the  great  age  of  ninety- 
four  years,  but  he  has  since  died.  Jacquet  of 


SAINT  JOHN  THE   EVANGELIST 

Size  of  the  original  print,  13 j  by  11  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  Friedrich  Miiller  (1782-1816),  after  the  painting  by 
Domenichino.     Engraved  in  1808. 


THE   RECLINING   MAGDALEN 

Size  of  the  original  print,  13J  by  16  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  Giuseppe  Longhi  (1766—1831),  after  the  painting  by  Correggio. 
Engraved  in  1809.  The  engraving  is  of  the  same  dimensions  as  the  original  painting, 
which  is  one  of  the  treasures  of  the  Dresden  Gallery. 


MASTERPIECES  OF  OLD  ENGRAVERS        27 

Paris,  so  far  from  being  dead  or  disabled,  won  the 
medal  for  line  engraving,  at  the  Paris  salon  of 
1890.  A  few  have  lingered  on  in  Germany:  such 
as  Burger  of  Munich,  Professor  Trossin  of  Kbnigs- 
berg,  and  Professor  Rudolph  Stang  of  Dussel- 
dorf;  and  Charles  Burt,  the  artist,  who  has 
produced  the  most  important  line  engraving  ever 
executed  in  America,  "The  Last  Supper,"  has  died 
only  recently. 

But  the  great  schools  of  line  engraving  which 
had  existed  for  centuries  in  Paris,  London,  and 
elsewhere  are  now  deserted,  and  not  one  pupil  is 
learning  this  beautiful  art,  to  take  the  places  of 
the  masters  who  have  passed  away.  What  is  the- 
cause  of  this?  Is  it  that  line  engraving,  which 
for  centuries  has  been  the  faithful  exponent  of 
painting  as  well  as  the  prime  embellisher  of  fine 
books,  is  now  found  to  be  inartistic  and  worthless? 
Is  it  that  those  engravings  which  have  so  long 
been  treasured  in  the  best  museums  of  Europe, 
because  they  were  i>elieved  to  be  beautiful  works 
of  art,  are  beautiful  works  of  art  no  longer?  No. 
Good  engravings  are  now  as  beautiful  as  they 
ever  were,  and  they  always  will  remain  so. 

But  in  this  utilitarian  age  when  "time  is  money" 
no  line  engraver  could  spend  long  years  in  learn- 
ing his  profession,  and  then  devote  four,  five,  or 
six  years  to  the  engraving  of  a  single  plate  after 
some  famous  picture,  when  that  picture  could  be 
photographed  in  the  fraction  of  one  second.  And 
just  as  the  express  train  has  superseded  the  stage- 
coach, and  the  telegraph  and  telephone  have  dis- 


28         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

placed  the  mounted  courier,  so  photography  and 
reproductive  methods  founded  on  photography, 
as  well  as  the  etcher's  rapid  method,  have  forever 
killed  line  engraving  as  the  only  art  whereby  the 
masterpieces  of  painting  can  be  reproduced  and 
multiplied,  and  the  engraver  will  no  longer  go 
hand  in  hand  with  the  creative  painter  as  he  had 
done  for  nearly  four  centuries. 

But,  happily  for  art,  though  the  engravers 
"rest  from  their  labors"  yet  "their  works  do 
follow  them."  Engraving  is  dead  —  but  the  en- 
gravings themselves  are  not  dead  —  and  what  is 
more,  they  will  not  die.  I  grant  that  just  now 
they  are  "out  of  fashion";  but  just  as  I  hope  we 
shall  live  to  see  the  day  when  every  new  dwell- 
ing need  not  be  a  "Queen  Anne"  house,  twisted 
and  tormented  into  a  jumble  of  unmeaning  gables 
and  balconies  and  corners;  just  as  I  hope  the 
time  is  near  when  it  will  no  longer  be  fashionable 
to  rack  our  brains  in  trying  to  understand  the 
obscure  and  contorted  poetry  of  Swinburne  and 
his  school  —  and  if  I  dare  say  so  —  of  Browning; 
while  Tennyson  and  Walter  Scott  and  Goldsmith 
and  old  Shakespeare,  as  well  as  Longfellow  and 
Rudyard  Kipling,  have  given  us  their  clear 
thought  in  plain  language :  so  I  am  convinced  that 
those  neglected  old  engravings  will  soon  resume 
their  legitimate  rank  as  being  the  best  reproduc- 
tions of  the  great  paintings  of  the  past. 

Perhaps  no  event  of  the  last  five  hundred 
years,  not  even  the  discovery  of  America,  has 
wrought  such  universal  good  as  the  invention  of 


THE  DAXCE  OF  THE  CUPIDS  AND  THE  CARRYING  AWAY  OF  PROSERPINE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  25f  by  30J  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  Francesco  Rosaspina  (1762-1842),  after  the  painting  by  Francesco 
Albani,  now  in  the  Brera  Gallery  at  Milan. 


MADONNA  DELLA  SCALA 

Size  of  the  original  print,  14  by  10  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  Paolo  Toschi  (1788-1854),  after  the  fresco  by  Correg- 
gio,  now  in  the  gallery  of  the  Academy  at  Parma.  This  is  admitted  to  be  the 
most  beautiful  of  all  Toschi's  engravings,  and  is  one  of  the  few  which  he  en- 
graved entirely  with  his  own  hand,  and  without  the  assistance  of  any  of  his 
pupils. 


printing.  Thereafter  the  world  could  never  go 
backward;  any  valuable  thing  once  printed  could 
never  be  lost  and  forgotten.  Similarly,  although 
the  art  of  engraving  designs  on  metal  can  be  traced 
back  to  remote  antiquity,  yet  the  great  event  was 
the  discovery  that  impressions  could  be  printed 
with  ink  from  engraved  plates.  After  this  dis- 
covery the  compositions  of  the  great  masters  of 
painting  could  be  engraved,  and  the  essential 
design  of  them  multiplied  at  will. 

The  Master's  painting  was  a  solitary  aristocrat; 
inaccessible  to  the  eyes  of  the  many.  It  was  like 
the  precious  and  jealously  guarded  manuscript, 
but  the  art  of  printing  rendered  the  engraving 
as  available  and  accessible  as  it  rendered  the 
printed  book. 

The  eminent  Italian  engraver,  Longhi,  has  well 
said  that  engravings  are  not  so  much  copies  as 
they  are  translations  of  the  original  painting  into 
another  language,  where  black  and  white  supply 
the  place  of  color,  ancj  these  translations  are  actu- 
ally better  presentations  of  the  originals  than 
most  copies  painted  in  colors  would  be;  for  no 
painter  of  ability  will  devote  his  life  to  copying 
the  works  of  other  men  (in  the  same  medium). 

Line  engravings,  being  printed,  not  from  steel 
but  from  comparatively  soft  copper  plates,  very 
soon  show  signs  of  wear  in  the  plate.  This  is 
why  "proofs"  are  the  best;  because  they  are  the 
earliest  impressions,  taken  from  a  fresh  and  un- 
worn copper.  But  it  is  a  fallacy  to  suppose  that 
no  engraving  can  be  good  unless  it  is  a  "proof." 


THE  BURIAL  OF  THE  BURIN 

Size  of  the  original  print,  13J  by  lOf  inches. 
Designed  and  engraved  by  Felix  Buhot  in  1877. 

In  this  lively  allegory  the  artist,  intimating  that  line-engraving  is  dead,  repre- 
sents the  dead  body  of  the  burin  (the  engraver's  implement)  borne  away  in  a 
hearse  and  its  soul  carried  up  to  heaven,  while  modern  Etching  comes  thunder- 
ing on  in  the  form  of  an  express  train. 


MASTERPIECES  OF  OLD  ENGRAVERS        31 

funeral  of  the  graving  tool  or  burin  (a  modern 
etching  that  sings  a  requiem);  and  then,  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  kindly  old  Latin  maxim,  we  shall  say 
all  the  good  we  can  concerning  the  dead. 


FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  LINE  ENGRAVINGS 

Introduction  to  the  Catalogue  of  an  Exhibition  made 
by  the  Grolier  Club 

FOR  nearly  four  centuries  the  line  engraver 
has  gone  hand  in  hand  with  the  creative 
painter  —  not  actually  making  copies  or  replicas 
of  his  work,  but  translating  it  from  the  language 
of  color  into  the  language  of  black  and  white; 
and  it  is  mainly  because  he  is  the  reproducer  and 
multiplier  of  the  essential  qualities  of  great  paint- 
ings that  we  owe  the  engraver  such  a  debt  of 
recognition. 

The  great  masterpiece  of  painting  is  a  solitary 
aristocrat.  Happy  is  the  individual  or  the  com- 
munity that  possess  such  a  picture;  meanwhile  it 
is  unavailable  to  the  rest  of  mankind  —  but  the 
engraving  done  from  it  is  as  available,  familiar, 
and  companionable  as  a  printed  book.  Although 
but  a  frail  sheet  of  paper  it  is  more  durable 
than  any  painting,  and  prevailing  by  its  numbers 
it  is  in  many  cases  the  only  remaining  record 
of  some  precious  original  which  has  long  since 
perished. 

A  very  few  of  the  great  painters  possessed  the 
technical  skill  and  the  patience  to  engrave  or 
etch  their  own  designs;  thus  the  line  engravings 
of  Albrecht  Durer  and  the  etchings  of  Rembrandt 

32 


THE  DOCTORS  OF  THE  CHURCH 

Size  of  the  original  print,  24^  by  15|  inches. 

From  the  line-engraving  by  William  Sharp  (1749-1824),  after  the  painting  by 
Guido  Reni.  Engraved  in  1785.  The  original  painting,  at  the  time  of  the 
engraving,  was  in  the  Hough  ton  Gallery,  but  is  now  in  the  Imperial  Gallery  of 
St.  Petersburg. 


FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  LINE  ENGRAVINGS    33 

are  incomparably  finer  than  any  reproductive  work 
done  by  another  hand  could  be;  but  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases  the  creative  artist  employed  and 
directed  the  skilled  engraver  and  fully  understood 
the  value  of  that  subordinate  art  which  multiplied 
and  perpetuated  his  own  original  design. 

Thus  Raphael  found  and  made  a  great  engraver 
of  Marcantonio  Raimondi;  Cornelis  Cort  worked 
in  Titian's  own  house;  Rubens  formed  and  trained 
a  notable  band  of  engravers,  and  so  did  both  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds  and  Turner.  And  these  engra- 
vers (themselves  consummate  artists)  soon  learned 
to  comprehend  and  to  interpret,  with  special 
insight  and  skill,  the  style  of  the  master  who 
guided  them. 

Under  these  circumstances  the  common  objec- 
tion that  such  engravings  are  not  "original"  is 
quite  out  of  place.  When  Marcantonio  or  Des- 
noyers  engraves  a  picture  by  Raphael,  no  one 
wants  originality  on  his  part;  Raphael  supplies 
that;  but  what  we  do  demand  is  absolute  fidelity 
to  Sis  original.  What  would  be  thought  of  a 
literary  man"  who,  in  rendering  an  ode  of  Horace 
or  the  Dies  Irse  into  English,  would  proceed  to 
]  infuse  some  of  his  own  "  originality^"  into  the 
translation? 

If  such  institutions  as  the  British  Museum  and 
the  Paris  Bibliotheque  have  zealously  collected 
and  preserved  tens  of  thousands  of  line  engravings, 
believing  them  to  be  veritable  works  of  art,  and 
worthy  of  the  care  that  is  devoted  to  them,  it 
is  evident  that  the  limits  of  space  in  this  gallery 


34         THE   GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

render  it  impossible  to  do  full  justice  to  so  wide 
a  field.  The  intelligent  specialist  will  certainly 
miss  some  of  his  favorite  prints,  and  he  may  won- 
der at  the  absence  from  the  catalogue  of  some  of 
the  famous  names  in  engraving;  but  until  the 
physical  problem  is  solved  whereby  a  pint  vessel 
may  be  made  to  contain  a  quart  or  a  gallon  of 
liquid,  he  will  doubtless  make  due  allowance  for 
such  enforced  omissions. 

Raphael  Morghen,  one  of  the  last  of  the  great 
line  engravers,  died  in  1833  —  and  in  the  same 
decade  Daguerre  announced  to  the  world  the 
discovery  of  photography.  Thereafter  chemistry 
and  sunlight  have  put  an  end  to  what  Ruskin 
calls  "the  noble  human  labour  of  the  engraver." 
He  is  no  longer  indispensable,  as  for  centuries 
he  was.  Like  Scott's  superseded  and  forlorn 
Last  Minstrel, 

"He  tunes  to  please  a  peasant's  ear 
The  harp  a  king  had  loved  to  hear." 

He  "rests  from  his  labors,"  yet  "his  works  do 
I  follow  him."  The  great  engravers  are  dead,  but 
J  the  great  engravings  will  never  die. 

All  the  cnarm  which  belongs  to  an  object  which 
is  rare  as  well  as  beautiful  inheres  in  the  fine 
impressions  of  the  best  of  the  old  line  engravings. 
"Steel -facing"  of  copper  plates  was  then  unknown, 
and  in  the  process  of  printing  from  the  unpro- 
tected copper  it  very  soon  wore  out.  Hence  really 
good  impressions  of  these  old  engravings  are  of 


ROMAN  EDIFICES  IN  RUINS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  23f  by  18f  inches. 

The  upper  picture  is  from  the  etching  by  William  Woollett,  after  the  painting  by 
Claude  Lorraine.  The  lower  picture  is  from  the  plate  after  it  was  finished  in 
line-engraving  in  1772.  It  is  interesting  to  note  how  far  forward  Woollett 
carried  his  plates  in  etching.  This  gave  to  his  work  a  freedom  and  richness 
which  ranks  him  foremost  of  all  engravers  of  landscape.  There  is  a  monument 
to  Woollett  in  Westminster  Abbey. 


3.S 


'  .S  o 

i.S  .-s 


a  M 

II 
g  « 


FOUR  CENTURIES  OF  LINE  ENGRAVINGS    35 

necessity  very  few  in  number — and,  to  the  edu-j 
cated  eye,  worn  impressions  are  worthless.  4 

Even  the  masterpieces  of  the  great  engravers, 
which  for  centuries  had  been  cherished  as  veri- 
table works  of  art,  have  suffered  a  temporary 
eclipse  owing  to  the  sudden  (and  deserved)  popu- 
larity of  the  best  contemporary  painter-etching; 
but  intelligent  connoisseurs  are  now  beginning 
to  realize  that  our  forefathers  were  in  no  respect 
mistaken  in  the  high  estimate  which  they  put 
upon  the  best  line  engravings,  and  to-day  these 
wrorks  have  an  added  claim  on  us  because  of  their 
increasing  rarity  through  the  lapse  of  long  years 
and  because  no  new  reproductive  process  can  ever 
compete  with  them. 

It  is  strange  how  hard  a  wide-spread  error  dies 
-  if  it  ever  dies  at  all.  Thus,  both  here  and  in 
England,  thousands  of  educated  people  still  use 
the  term  "a  steel  engraving."  This  term  is 
nearly  always  a  misnomer,  for  it  is  a  fact  that 
hardly  a  single  one  of  the  engravings  which  rank 
as  works  of  art  was  done  on  a  steel  plate;  copper 
is  obviously  a  far  mellower  metal  for  the  engraver 
to  work  upon.  Indeed,  almost  the  only  veritable 
"steel  engravings"  which  enjoy  a  universal  and 
unchanging  popularity  are  the  greenbacks  issued 
by  the  Treasury  at  Washington! 


DRAWINGS  BY  OLD  MASTERS 

WTH  regard  to  the  delightful  hobby  of 
collecting  works  of  art,  or  even  the  fac- 
ulty of  admiring  them  if  one  cannot  possess  them, 
I  confess  that  my  own  first  choice  would  be  the 
collecting  of  painters'  drawings. 

Even  the  finest  and  most  elaborate  painting 
is  often  no  better  than  a  compromise  between  the 
artist's  own  feeling  and  his  thought  of  what 
would  please  the  public  —  and  the  buyer;  but  in 
these  drawings  we  have  the  artist  himself,  pure 
and  simple.  Such  drawings  were  personal  memo- 
randa, never  destined  for  sale  or  for  exhibition, 
and  in  consequence  they  are  the  most  personal 
of  all  pictures.  For  this  reason  they  are  seldom 
signed,  any  more  than  a  man  would  sign  a  memo- 
randum written  for  his  own  use. 

At  the  present  day,  unless  an  art-lover  has  a 
very  long  purse,  he  cannot  possess  a  painting  by 
an  artist  of  the  first  rank.  Most  of  such  pic- 
tures —  like  a  nun  entering  a  convent  —  have 
"taken  the  veil."  They  have  gone  into  galleries 
whence  they  can  never  come  out.  We  may  look 
at  them,  perhaps,  but  we  never  can  possess  them. 
But  an  intimate  and  well  authenticated  draw- 
ing, the  work  of  some  great  artist,  is  still  avail- 
able occasionally. 

36 


STUDY  OF  A   BOY'S  HEAD 

Size  of  the  original  drawing,  5f  by  4^  inches. 
Drawn  by  Cornelis  Visscher,  who  was  born  in  Holland  about  the 

year  1620,  and  died  about  the  year  1670. 

"  If  I  had  the  means  to  be  a  collector  of  fine  prints  and  drawings 
I  would  commence  by  collecting  the  works  of  Cornelis  Visscher." 

F.  K. 


THE   BEHEADING  OF  JOHN  THE  BAPTIST 

Size  of  the  original  drawing,  8  by  10f  inches. 

From  the  original  sketch  by  Rembrandt.  To  the  right  is  seen  the  daughter  of 
Herodias,  holding  a  "charger,"  or  dish,  which  is  to  contain  the  head  of  John 
the  Baptist. 


DRAWINGS  BY  OLD  MASTERS  37 

The  masters  of  painting  may  be  divided  into 
those  who  knew  how  to  etch  or  engrave  their  own 
compositions,  and  those  who  did  not.  Diirer, 
Rembrandt,  Claude  Lorrain,  and  Canaletto  have 
left  prints,  done  by  their  own  hands,  which  are 
procurable  by  almost  any  one,  but  the  great  major- 
ity of  painters  were  dependent  on  some  other 
engraver  or  etcher  for  the  duplication  of  the 
design  of  their  picture. 

Meanwhile,  every  one  of  the  painters  has  left 
intimate  drawings  and  studies  which,  as  I  have 
said,  were  memoranda  for  himself  alone,  and  such 
drawings  are  as  carefully  preserved  in  the  museums 
of  Europe  as  are  the  paintings  themselves.  Sev- 
eral of  the  great  painters  had  almost  a  passion 
for  making  drawings;  just  as  some  writer,  endowed 
with  great  mental  activity,  keeps  a  "common-! 
place  book"  in  which  he  jots  down  every  literary/ 
idea  as  it  occurs  to  him.  Rembrandt  had  such 
a  passion  and  so  had  the  Frenchman  Millet, 
whose  son  has  told  me  that  when  his  father  sat 
down  to  dinner  he  used  to  take  a  few  sheets  of 
paper  and  a  pencil  to  the  table,  and  that  seated 
there  he  would  often  jot  down  some  artistic  idea 
which  had  just  occurred  to  him. 


SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS 

Reprinted, by  permission  from  "  Scribner's  Magazine'9 

HAD  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  never  painted  a 
picture,  he  would  still  remain  a  most  inter- 
esting personality,  solely  for  what  he  was  and  for 
the  friends  he  made. 

Most  subjects  —  especially  from  the  journalistic 
point  of  view  —  very  soon  become  stale  and  unac- 
ceptable; yet  there  are  a  few  that  never  grow  old, 
but,  like  some  fairy-tale  told  and  retold  to  a  child, 
never  lose  their  charm.  The  lives  as  well  as  the 
works  of  great  artists  are  subjects  of  this  sort; 
and  when,  as  in  the  case  of  Reynolds,  the  great 
artist  was  also  a  man  thoroughly  respected  and 
cordially  liked,  and  moreover,  when  his  intellec- 
tual endowments  caused  his  society  to  be  sought 
by  the  finest  minds  of  his  age  —  there  is  some 
warrant  in  retelling  a  story,  much  but  not  all  of 
which  has  often  been  told  before. 

It  speaks  well  for  any  man  to  have  been  the 
intimate  personal  frierid  of  the  very  best  people 
of  his  own  day  and  generation.  And  what  super- 
latively good  company  was  that  which  Sir  Joshua 
kept!  The  famous  Literary  Club,  established  at 
the  artist's  own  suggestion  in  1764,  and  of  which 
he  was  the  president,  contained  perhaps  a  higher 
average  of  intellect,  and  even  of  genius,  than  any 

38 


SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS  39 

other  similar  association.  At  least  four  of  the 
most  famous  men  of  that  historic  circle  lived  and 
died  in  comparative  poverty,  but  now  that  a 
century  has  passed  away,  what  matters  poverty 
to  such  men  as  Samuel  Johnson,  or  Edmund  Burke, 
or  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan,  or  Oliver  Gold- 
smith? 

The  familiar  engraving  "A  Literary  Party  at 
the  House  of  Reynolds,"  brings  them  all  before 
us.  A  number  of  gentlemen  are  seen  seated  round 
the  hospitable  artist's  table;  the  burly  and  master- 
ful Dr.  Johnson,  in  a  huge  wig,  is  thundering  at 
Edmund  Burke,  while  behind  the  doctor's  chair 
is  Boswell,  taldng  notes;  Sir  Joshua  himself  (who 
was  very  deaf)  sits  quietly  listening  through  his 
ear-trumpet;  Garrick  is  there,  bright,  alert,  and 
Oliver  Goldsmith  looks  as  if  he  would  much 
rather  be  talking  himself  than  merely  listening. 

Goldsmith  was  generally  the  butt  of  that  bril- 
liant company,  —  undersized,  ill-favored,  bald, 
scarred  with  smallpox,  improvident  and  impe- 
cunious, vain,  dressy,  and  talkative  as  a  magpie, 
but  to-day  perhaps  the  brightest  star  of  that 
brilliant  constellation.  Success  and  adulation 
made  Garrick  vain;  but  Goldsmith's  vanity  did 
not  require  these  aids.  And  yet  we  sympathize 
with  him  still  on  such  occasions  as  that  when 
his  amour-propre  was  so  ruthlessly  crushed  and 
trampled  upon  at  a  meeting  of  the  Club,  where 
he  was  delivering  himself  of  some  intellectual 
harangue  —  doubtless  to  his  own  entire  satis- 
faction —  and  a  certain  German  Herr  Professor 


40         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

(who  had  been  casually  admitted),  on  seeing  Dr. 
Johnson  begin  to  puff  and  roll  in  his  chair  as  his 
manner  was  when  an  idea  struck  him  —  suddenly 
broke  in  upon  the  luckless  Goldsmith  with  - 
"Ach!  blease  be  silendt;  Toctor  Chonson  iss  going 
to  zay  zomezing!" 

When  his  landlady  had  Goldsmith  arrested  for 
debt,  the  only  possible  asset  through  which  his 
friend  Johnson  could  hope  to  extricate  him  was 
the  manuscript  of  a  tale  which  Goldsmith  had 
written,  but  had  never  attempted  to  publish. 
This  Johnson  took  to  a  publisher  and  advised 
him  to  buy  it  for  sixty  pounds.  What  would  have 
been  poor  Goldsmith's  emotion  could  he  have 
looked  into  the  future  and  witnessed  a  recent 
event  which  took  place  in  Germany:  the  editor 
of  a  widely  circulated  journal  there  took  the  votes 
of  his  subscribers  as  to  their  favorite  book,  and 
this  same  tale  of  Goldsmith's-  "The  Vicar  of 
Wakefield"  —  came  in  at  the  top  of  the  poll! 

This  was  the  man  whom  Reynolds  chose  as 
his  most  intimate  companion,  though  after  Gold- 
smith's death,  in  1774,  the  historian  Gibbon 
seems  to  have  gradually  taken  his  place.  Gold- 
smith's affection  is  touchingly  expressed  in  his 
pathetic  dedication  of  his  "Deserted  Village"  to 
Reynolds:  "The  only  dedication  I  ever  made  was 
to  my  brother,  because  I  loved  him  better  than 
most  other  men.  He  is  since  dead.  Permit  me 
to  inscribe  this  poem  to  you" 

There  was  indeed  only  one  inferior  man  among 
this  company  of  friends;  but  they  little  thought, 


SIR  JOSHUA   REYNOLDS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  18-J-  by  13  inches. 

From  the  mezzotint  by  James  Watson  (1740-1790),  after  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds.     Engraved  in  1770. 


THE  HONORABLE  AUGUSTUS  KEPPEL 

Size  of  the  original  print,  15f  by  12f  inches. 

From  the  mezzotint  engraving  by  William  Doughty,  after  the  painting  by 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.  Engraved  in  1779.  Admiral  Keppel  was  one  of  the  first 
patrons  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  and  was  instrumental  in  starting  him  on  his 
career  as  a  portrait-painter. 


SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS  41 

when  they  tolerated  James  Boswell  as  a  sort  of 
harmless  hanger-on  of  Dr.  Johnson,  that  they 
themselves  (as  well  as  Boswell's  particular  hero) 
would  go  down  to  remote  posterity,  alive  and 
human,  in  the  pages  of  that  book  of  which  Macau- 
lay  declares  it  can  only  perish  with  the  English 
language. 

Joshua  Reynolds  was  one  of  a  large  family  of 
children,  and  was  born  in  1723  in  the  little  town 
of  Plympton,  Devonshire,  where  his  father,  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Reynolds,  was  master  of  the  gram- 
mar school.  His  father,  not  believing  that  paint- 
ing should  be  considered  as  a  serious  profession 
at  all,  desired  to  make  a  physician  of  his  son,  and 
it  is  recorded  that  when  the  good  clergyman 
found  a  drawing  which  had  been  perpetrated 
during  school-hours,  he  wrote  upon  it:  "Done  by 
Joshua  out  of  pure  idleness."  But  when  he  was 
convinced  of  his  son's  overpowering  bent  toward 
art  he  had  the  intelligence  not  to  oppose  it  fur- 
ther; and  he  lived  to  see  the  beginnings  of  Joshua's 
success. 

The  young  student  was  bound  as  apprentice 
to  Hudson,  then  the  fashionable  portrait  painter 
of  London  —  but  more  a  mere  manufacturer  of 
likenesses  than  an  artist.  Indeed,  until  Rey- 
nolds himself  turned  the  tide,  the  English  acted 
on  the  belief  that  only  a  foreigner  could  paint  a 
good  portrait.  This  was  well  so  long  as  they 
employed  such  masters  as  Holbein  and  Van 
Dyck;  but  at  later  periods  foreign  painters  of 


42         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

lower  rank,  such  as  Sir  Peter  Lely  and  Sir  Godfrey 
Kneller,  continued  the  tradition,  to  the  great 
discouragement  of  the  home  school. 

Hudson,  soon  becoming  jealous  of  his  clever 
apprentice,  dismissed  him,  and  shortly  afterward 
Reynolds  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  taken  to  the 
Mediterranean  by  his  life-long  friend  Admiral 
Keppel,  in  the  war-ship  Centurion,  and  the  first 
portrait  which  he  painted  of  the  admiral  was  the 
picture  which  laid  the  foundation  of  his  fortune. 
From  the  British  war-ship  he  landed  in  Italy, 
where  he  remained  for  nearly  three  years,  and  from 
Rome  he  wrote  to  his  family,  "I  am  now  at  the 
height  of  my  wishes."  And  if  an  art-student 
ever  made  the  most  of  his  opportunities  for  study, 
Reynolds  certainly  did.  His  journals  during  that 
period  are  full  of  careful  notes  on  the  great  Ital- 
ian pictures,  and  besides  written  observations  he 
made  many  sketches  of  these  pictures  or  of  parts 
of  them.  He  did  little  direct  copying,  but  sought 
rather  to  penetrate  the  principle  of  their  technic 
and  style. 

Although  France  still  sends  her  own  brightest 
young  painters  to  complete  their  studies  at  the 
Italian  capital,  yet  in  our  day  Paris,  and  not 
Rome,  is  the  Mecca  of  art-students — especially  of 
Americans.  Of  these,  some  are  earnest,  modest, 
and  hard-working,  and  will  not  disappoint  the 
hopes  of  their  friends  in  the  future.  But  among 
many  others  of  this  Paris  colony  it  is  greatly  to 
be  feared  that  a  student  like  young  Reynolds 
would  be  voted  a  dull,  spiritless,  plodding  fellow; 


SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS  43 

depending  very  little  on  his  inborn  and  untaught 
genius,  but,  on  the  contrary,  taking  infinite  pains 
to  learn  what  he  did  not  know.  He  certainly 
was  not  up  to  the  modern  standard  of  knowing 
all  about  art  without  having  taken  the  trouble 
to  learn,  nor  did  he  look  down  with  an  amiable 
contempt  upon  the  men  who  have  produced  the 
great  pictures  of  the  world;  and  though  his  jour- 
nals are  full  of  records  of  close  and  earnest  study 
of  great  pictures,  he  never  loftily  dismissed  the 
claims  of  some  recognized  masterpiece  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  "not  Art"  or  not  "amusing," 
or  of  another  because  it  was  "ghastly,"  or  of  a 
third,  which  had  won  the  enthusiastic  admira- 
tion of  the  best  judges,  because  it  was  "merely 
popular."  Indeed,  so  far  wras  Reynolds  lacking 
in  this  ultra  modern  superiority,  that  when  he 
had  won  recognition  throughout  Europe  as  being 
one  of  the  great  masters  of  painting,  he  was  not 
ashamed  to  express  himself  in  the  following  plain 
words:  "Those  who  are  determined  to  excel  in 
art  must  go  to  their  work  whether  willing  or  unwill- 
ing; morning,  noon,  and  night.  And  they  will 
find  it  no  play,  but,  on  the  contrary,  very  hard 
labor."  And  again  he  writes:  "Nothing  is  denied 
to  well-directed  labor;  nothing  is  to  be  attained 
without  it." 

It  was  while  studying  Raphael's  frescos  in  the 
Vatican  that  Reynolds  caught  the  cold  which 
resulted  in  his  deafness;  and  thereafter  the  ear- 
trumpet  of  Sir  Joshua  was  as  characteristic  a 
part  of  himself  as  was  the  wooden  leg  a  part  of 


44    THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

the  redoubtable  Governor  Peter  Stuyvesant.  He 
even  painted  his  own  portrait  with  this  trumpet 
held  to  his  ear;  though,  when  about  the  same  time 
he  painted  Dr.  Johnson  holding  a  book  very  close 
to  his  eyes,  the  great  man  did  not  relish  this  vivid 
evidence  of  his  extreme  near-sightedness,  but 
said  to  Boswell:  "Sir,  he  may  paint  himself  as 
deaf  as  he  chooses,  but  I  will  not  go  down  to  pos- 
terity as  '  Blinking  Sam. ' ' 

Returning  to  London  in  1752,  Reynolds  soon 
entered  upon  that  wonderful  career  of  success 
and  prosperity  which  lasted  continuously  for 
nearly  forty  years;  and  although  in  ideal  composi- 
tions, which  depend  on  the  artist's  imaginative 
power,  he  has  certainly  been  excelled  by  some  other 
masters,  yet  in  portrait  painting  he  became 
supreme.  To  read  the  mere  list  of  his  sitters  one 
would  imagine  that  not  only  the  British  peerage, 
but  also  every  celebrity  and  beauty  of  the  time, 
had  gone  in  a  long  procession  through  Sir  Joshua's 
studio.  He  used  to  consider  a  hundred  and  fifty 
finished  portraits  a  fair  year's  work,  and,  incred- 
ible as  it  seems,  he  was  able  to  finish  a  head  in 
four  hours.  His  main  desire  was  to  paint  the 
countenance  of  his  sitter  at  its  best.  "His  men 
are  all  nobleness,  his  women  all  loveliness,  and 
his  children  all  simplicity";  yet  they  are  all  like 
the  living  originals.  Having  caught  not  only 
the  features,  but  also  the  expression  and  the  soul 
of  his  subject,  he  loved  to  idealize  the  costume  and 
surroundings  —  especially  of  his  ladies  —  and  in 
the  charm  and  variety  of  his  poses  and  accessories 


DR.   SAMUEL  JOHNSON 
Size  of  the  original  print,  18  by  13  inches. 

From  the  mezzotint  by  William  Doughty,  after  the  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Rey- 
nolds. Engraved  in  1779.  In  this  magnificent  portrait  the  painter  and  the 
engraver  have  combined  to  give  us  the  best  portrait  of  "the  Colossus  of 
English  Literature." 


OLIVER  GOLDSMITH 

Size  of  the  original  print,  18  by  13  inches. 

From  the  mezzotint  by  Giuseppe  Marchi.  Engraved  in  1770.  Reynolds,  with 
his  wonderful  art,  has  given  both  dignity  and  mental  power  to  these  plain 
and  homely  features. 


SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS  45 

he  has  perhaps  never  been  equaled  by  any  other 
portrait  painter. 

His  prices  were  at  first  very  moderate,  but  he 
continued  to  advance  them  without  diminishing 
the  number  of  his  patrons.  Both  he  and  Garrick 
were  said  to  have  had  a  keen  eye  to  their  own 
pecuniary  interests;  but  what  sensible  man  does 
not  get  all  that  he  lawfully  and  honorably  can? 
The  fortune  which  he  left  to  his  niece  (besides 
large  bequests  to  other  relations)  amounted  to 
about  a  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling,  but 
he  was  liberal  as  well  as  prudent,  and  when  making 
his  will  not  only  did  he  cancel  a  debt  of  two  thou- 
sand pounds  which  he  had  lent  to  Edmund  Burke, 
but  he  bequeathed  him  an  additional  sum  of  the 
same  amount. 

When,  in  the  year  1760,  Reynolds  removed  to 
the  spacious  house,  number  47  Leicester  Square, 
where  he  passed  the  remainder  of  his  life,  he 
was  at  the  height  of  his  fame  and  success.  A 
tablet  over  the  door  still  records  his  occupancy 
of  thirty -two  years,  and  the  present  tenants, 
Messrs.  Puttick  &  Simpson,  the  auctioneers  of 
artistic  and  literary  property,  are  most  obliging 
in  pointing  out  to  visitors  the  various  relics 
of  the  master  —  even  to  the  banisters  of  the 
stone  staircase,  which  were  made  with  an  outward 
curve  so  that  the  fine  ladies  wearing  enormous 
hoops  could  pass  up  and  down  unimpeded. 
What  a  procession  of  notable  personages  did  this 
staircase  accommodate;  what  guests  assembled 
around  that  table;  and  had  the  dumb  walls  been 


46    THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

phonographs,  how  precious  would  their  records 
be  now! 

Few  men  have  ever  led  a  fuller  or  happier  life 
than  Reynolds.  One  of  the  most  sympathetic  of  his 
biographers  —  his  pupil  Northcote  —  says  of  him: 
"He  most  heartily  enjoyed  his  profession,  and  I 
agree  with  Mr.  Malone  (another  biographer), 
who  says  he  appeared  to  him  to  be  the  happiest 
man  he  ever  knew."  Dr.  Johnson,  who  seldom 
paid  compliments,  said  of  him  that  if  they  should 
quarrel  Reynolds  would  have  him  at  a  great  dis- 
advantage, because  he  could  not  say  one  word 
to  his  detriment.  His  literary  powers  were  of  a 
high  order;  but  he  never  could  have  written  such 
a  book  as  that  strange  production  of  a  great 
artist  of  a  later  century  "The  Gentle  Art  of  Mak- 
ing Enemies";  for  his  whole  life  was  an  unceasing 
practise  of  the  still  gentler  and  more  difficult  art 
of  making  friends.  One  secret  of  his  success  may 
be  found  among  the  code  of  rules  which  he  had 
composed  for  himself:  "The  great  secret  of  being 
happy  in  this  world  is,  not  to  mind  or  be  affected 
by  small  things." 

In  politics  he  belonged  to  the  small  minority, 
so  splendidly  led  by  Burke  and  Chatham,  who 
steadfastly  believed  in  the  ultimate  success  of 
those  rebels  in  America  who  were  giving  King 
George  the  Third  so  much  trouble;  and  he  even 
won  several  wagers  on  the  result. 

The  Royal  Academy  of  Arts  was  founded  in 
1768,  when  Reynolds  was  elected  president  by 
acclamation  and  was  knighted  by  the  King.  His 


SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS  47 

majesty  was  probably  as  blind  to  the  real  merits 
of  the  artist  as  he  was  to  those  of  most  other 
great  men  of  his  time  (though,  by  the  way,  George 
the  Third  believed  in  Handel  when  that 
great  musician  was  neglected  by  the  fashionable 
world  of  London).  Notwithstanding  Sir  Joshua's 
many  occupations,  he  was  tireless  in  advancing 
the  interests  of  the  Royal  Academy,  and  contin- 
ued to  labor  for  it  to  the  end  of  his  life.  It  was 
he  who  inaugurated  the  annual  Academy  dinner, 
which  in  our  day  is  attended  by  the  greatest 
personages  of  the  land,  including  royalty;  and 
the  yearly  discourses  which  he  delivered  as  presi- 
dent have  taken  rank  as  unquestioned  classics  in 
the  art  lore  of  the  world.  They  were  soon  trans- 
lated into  several  continental  languages,  and  the 
Empress  Catherine  the  Great  of  Russia  sent  their 
author  her  portrait  set  with  diamonds,  and  an 
autograph  letter  thanking  him  for  the  pleasure 
and  instruction  which  their  perusal  had  afforded 
her.  The  great  success  of  these  discourses  was 
too  much  for  Sir  Joshua's  detractors,  and  though 
they  could  not  deny  their  merit,  they  were  fain  to 
declare  that  their  high  literary  quality  was  due  to 
the  pen  of  Edmund  Burke  or  Dr.  Johnson.  Burke 
simply  denied  the  report,  and  Johnson  declared 
that  he  would  as  little  think  of  presuming  to  write 
for  Reynolds  as  he  would  to  paint  for  him.  Charles 
Blanc,  the  French  Academician,  while  bestowing 
unstinted  praise  on  Reynolds  as  a  painter,  declares 
that  these  Academy  discourses  are  still  his  great- 
est work;  but  the  eminent  critic  goes  on  to  say 


48         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

that  the  artist's  practise  did  not  always  accord 
with  his  precepts;  as  when  he  ranks  drawing  above 
color,  while  his  pictures  really  are  stronger  in 
color  than  in  drawing;  or  when  he  declares  that 
Michael  Angelo  was  the  king  of  all  artists,  while 
he  (Reynolds)  imitated  Rembrandt  in  his  pic- 
tures. It  is  hard  to  understand  what  so  acute  a 
critic  as  Charles  Blanc  can  mean  when  he  re- 
proaches Reynolds  with  imparting  "an  altogether 
British  aspect"  to  his  portraits.  What  else  would 
he  have  them? 

Ruskin  calls  Sir  Joshua  the  "prince  of  portrait 
painters"  and  "one  of  the  seven  colorists  of  the 
world,"  ranking  him  in  this  respect  with  Turner  and 
five  of  the  great  Italian  masters.  Reynolds  did  not 
attain  this  mastery  of  color  without  working  for 
it.  He  even  went  to  the  extreme  of  purchasing 
pictures  by  Titian  and  Rubens  and  decom- 
posing their  pigments,  thereby  hoping  to  "pluck 
out  the  heart  of  their  mystery."  Sir  Joshua's 
zeal  for  improvement  was  insatiable.  He  never 
began  a  picture  without  resolving  that  he  would 
make  it  a  better  one  than  he  had  ever  painted 
before.  One  result  of  this  ambition  was,  that,  in 
general,  the  quality  of  his  work  became  better 
and  better  to  the  end  of  his  life.  But  in  one  par- 
ticular he  certainly  exercised  a  "zeal,  but  not 
according  to  knowledge";  for  having  inherited 
from  his  father  a  taste  for  making  experiments 
in  chemistry,  he  applied  it  to  the  composition  of 
his  colors  —  sometimes  with  disastrous  results. 
Thus,  I  remember  that  twenty-five  years  ago  his 


T  II  A  i   S 


THAIS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  19  by  10^  inches. 
From  the  stipple  engraving  by  Francesco  Bartolozzi  (1725-1815),  after  the  painting 

by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.     Engraved  in  1792. 
Thais,  the  protegee  of  Alexander  the  Great,  bearing  the  torch  to  fire  the  Persian 

palace  at  Persepolis.     This  is  a  good  example  of  the  stipple  or  dotted  manner 

of  engraving. 


LADY  COCKBURN  AND  HER  CHILDREN 

Size  of  the  original  print,  20  by  15j  inches. 

From  the  stipple  engraving  by  Charles  Wilkin  (1750-1814),  after  the  painting  by 
Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.  Engraved  in  1791.  This  beautiful  picture,  although 
painted  in  1773,  is,  unlike  many  of  Sir  Joshua's  works,  as  fresh  and  glowing 
as  it  could  have  been  when  it  first  left  the  painter's  easel. 


SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS  49 

large  "Holy  Family,"  in  the  British  National  Gal- 
lery, was  in  fairly  good  condition;  but  on  revisit- 
ing it  yearly  it  was  easy  to  see  that  the  cracks  on 
its  surface  were  growing  more  apparent,  and  that 
the  picture  was  going  to  destruction.  The  last 
time  I  saw  it,  it  was  worse  than  ever  —  and  recently 
the  picture  has  been  removed  from  the  walls  alto- 
gether. On  the  other  hand,  the  beautiful  portrait 
of  Lady  Cockburn  and  her  three  children,  painted 
in  1773,  is  now  as  fresh  and  glowing  as  it  could 
have  been  when  it  first  left  the  painter's  easel. 

Some  of  his  methods  were  peculiar.  He  usu- 
ally painted  his  sitters  from  their  reflection  in  a 
mirror,  and  not  from  a  direct  view.  He  always 
remained  standing  while  at  work,  and  he  rarely 
signed  a  portrait.  One  notable  exception,  how- 
ever, was  made  in  the  case  of  his  magnificent  por- 
trait of  Mrs.  Siddons  as  the  Tragic  Muse,  which 
was  painted  when  the  master  was  sixty  years  old 
and  when  Mrs.  Siddons  was  twenty-eight.  The 
great  actress,  failing  at  first  to  recognize  a  sort  of 
embroidery  which  the  artist  had  added  to  the 
edge  of  her  robe,  soon  perceived  that  it  contained 
the  words  "Joshua  Reynolds  pinxit,  1784"; 
whereupon  Sir  Joshua  assured  her  that  he  would 
be  proud  to  have  his  name  go  down  to  posterity 
on  the  hem  of  her  garment!  Before  commencing 
this  picture,  the  artist,  instead  of  posing  the  sitter 
himself,  requested  Mrs.  Siddons  to  give  him  her 
own  idea  of  the  Tragic  Muse,  and  she  immedi- 
ately assumed  the  pose  in  which  the  picture  was 
painted. 


50         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  never  married;  but  like 
most  of  the  sons  of  Adam  his  life  had  its  romance, 
and  the  gossips  of  the  time  (if  not  he  himself) 
were  determined  that  he  should  marry  Angelica 
Kauffmann. 

This  interesting  artist  was  the  daughter  of 
an  obscure  painter,  and  was  born  in  Switzerland. 
She  came  to  England  in  1776,  where  she  met  with 
a  very  flattering  reception.  She  profited  greatly 
by  the  instruction  and  the  friendship  of  Reynolds, 
and  was  even  elected  one  of  the  thirty-six  original 
members  of  the  Royal  Academy.  Her  style  is 
attractive  from  a  certain  dainty  elegance  which 
sometimes  borders  on  affectation,  and  many  of 
her  designs  have  been  beautifully  engraved  by 
Bartolozzi,  Thomas  Burke,  and  others.  Although 
at  one  time  Angelica  imagined  herself  to  be  deeply 
in  love  with  Sir  Joshua,  yet  she  was  a  sad  flirt, 
and  after  having  more  or  less  seriously  broken 
the  hearts  of  several  adorers,  she  finished  by  marry- 
ing an  impostor  —  the  valet  of  Count  de  Horn, 
a  Swedish  nobleman.  This  man  imposed  upon  her 
by  assuming  not  only  the  title  but  even  the  clothes 
of  his  master. 

A  curious  thing  is  the  passionate  love  for  chil- 
dren which  is  so  often  seen  in  persons  who  have 
deliberately  chosen  a  single  life.  One  of  the  cyn- 
ical rules  which  Dean  Swift  laid  down  for  himself 
when  he  had  grown  old  was  to  take  care  not  to 
allow  his  fondness  for  children  to  be  seen.  Pos- 
sibly, if  such  people  as  the  Dean  and  Sir  Joshua 
had  brought  up  families  of  their  own,  their  exalted 


SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS  51 

idea  of  the  angelic  attributes  of  children  might 
have  been  somewhat  lowered;  but  be  this  as  it 
may,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  very  loveliest  por- 
traits of  children  that  ever  were  painted  are  the 
work  of  this  childless  man.  His  familiar  group 
known  as  "Angels'  Heads"  is  nothing  but  the 
portrait  of  little  Isabel  Gordon,  taken  from  five 
different  points  of  view.  The  original,  in  the 
National  Gallery,  happily  retains  all  its  beauty 
of  color.  It  recalls  the  famous  pun  of  Pope 
Gregory  the  Great,  "Non  Angli  sed  Angeli."  The 
quaint  picture  of  "Mercury  as  a  Pickpocket"  is 
another  example  of  the  master's  intimate  sym- 
pathy with  children. 

It  is  recorded  that  Reynolds  always  believed 
his  portraits  of  women  to  be  his  finest  works,  and 
it  is  certain  that  at  the  present  day  such  a  por- 
trait, or  even  a  fine  engraving  from  it,  would  sell 
for  a  much  higher  price  than  could  be  obtained 
for  any  other  class  of  his  work.  For  example, 
a  proof  of  Watson's  niezzotint  of  Lady  Bampfylde 
was  recently  sold  at  auction  in  London  for  three 
hundred  and  sixty  pounds  —  a  much  larger  sum 
than  Sir  Joshua  received  for  the  original  painting. 
The  portrait  of  the  Hon.  Miss  Bingham  shows 
much  of  the  innocence  and  charm  that  characterize 
the  master's  portraits  of  children.  This  beautiful 
girl  lived  till  1840,  and  never  married. 

Perhaps  no  famous  beauty  has  ever  been  the 
subject  of  so  many  notable  pictures  as  the  cele- 
brated Emma  Hart,  afterward  Lady  Hamilton. 
In  early  life  she  was  a  nursemaid  at  Hawarden 


52          THE   GOLDEN   AGE   OF   ENGRAVING 

(where  Mr.  Gladstone  lived),  but  later  she  seems 
to  have  driven  the  artists  wild  with  admiration 
for  her  beauty  and  grace.  Romney  has  painted 
several  admirable  portraits  of  her;  and  Sir  Joshua 
represents  her  in  the  character  of  a  bacchante. 
The  fine  picture  of  Mrs.  Billington  as  Saint  Cecilia 
is  one  of  the  few  representative  examples  of  Rey- 
nolds that  are  accessible  to  the  American  public. 
It  is  in  the  gallery  of  the  Lenox  Library ,  Xew 
York.  There  are  also  a  few  in  private  collections, 
but  notwithstanding  the  master's  industry  and 
facility  of  production,  fine  "Sir  Joshuas"  are 
to-day  almost  unprocurable. 

Just  at  present  there  exists  in  Paris  a  great 
enthusiasm  for  the  works  of  Reynolds;  and  the 
Salon  of  the  present  year  contained  a  consider- 
able number  of  etchings  and  engravings  after 
them.  But  not  one  of  them  is  satisfactory,  and  it 
is  evident  that  the  French,  with  all  their  clever- 
ness, cannot  do  him  justice.  These  engravers 
seemed  determined  to  "improve"  the  originals 
by  adding  a  coquettish  Parisian  smirk  to  the 
faces;  and  the  result  is  deplorable.  I  remember 
in  particular  one  of  these  reproductions,  in 
which  the  sweet  and  simple  little  Penelope 
Boothby  is  made  to  look  like  an  artful  young 
schemer  —  full  of  craft  and  arriere  pensee, 
Indeed,  it  is  rare  to  find  an  engraver  of  one 
nationality  who  can  do  justice  to  the  picture  of 
another. 

While  such  masters  as  Titian,  Raphael,  Rubens, 
and  Turner  employed  and  directed  their  own 


LADY  ELIZABETH  KEPPEL.  AFTERWARDS  MARCHIONESS  OF  TAVIS- 

TOCK 

Size  of  the  original  print.  33 j  by  14j  inches. 

From  the  mezzotint  engraving  by  Richard  Fisher  (,1730-1785),  after  the  painting 
by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.  Engraved  in  1761. 

Lady  Elizabeth  Keppel  was  one  of  the  bridesmaids  to  Queen  Charlotte  in  1761. 
in  which  character  Reynolds  painted  her.  This  and  the  companion  portrait 
of  Lady  Sarah  Bunbury  are  accounted  the  masterpieces  of  the  engraver. 


LADY  ELIZABETH  FOSTER 

Size  of  the  original  print,  10£  by  8f  inches. 

From  the  stipple  engraving  by  Francesco  Bartolozzi  (1725-1815),  after  the  paint- 
ing by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds.  Bartolozzi  was  a  master  in  line-engraving  as 
well  as  in  the  stipple  method. 


SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS  53 

engravers  —  fully  understanding  the  value  of  that 
subordinate  art  which  multiplied  and  perpetuated 
their  own  original  designs  —  yet  it  is  probable 
that  Reynolds  was  better  served  than  any  other 
master  through  what  Ruskin  calls  "the  noble 
human  labor  of  the  engraver."  His  rich  color- 
ing and  broad  style  lent  themselves  especially  to 
the  mezzotint  process,  and,  largely  through  his 
encouragement  and  patronage,  the  contemporary 
British  school  of  mezzotint  engravers  produced 
works  which  must  always  rank  as  masterpieces. 
Within  two  years  from  his  death  as  many  as  seven 
hundred  plates  had  been  engraved  after  his  de- 
signs, and  during  the  nineteenth  century  this 
large  number  was  greatly  increased.  Upon  seeing 
one  of  the  plates  which  MacArdell  engraved, 
Sir  Joshua  had  the  generosity  to  exclaim:  "By 
this  man  I  shall  be  immortalized ! "  Indeed,  he 
little  suspected  that  this  was  true  in  a  double 
sense,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  he  often  made  use 
of  perishable  colors;"  and  while  the  decay  of  any 
painting  in  oils  is  only  a  question  of  time,  there  is 
practically  no  limit  to  the  lasting  powers  of  those 
frail  sheets  of  paper.  Reynolds  himself,  in  com- 
mon with  many  artists  —  including  Rembrandt, 
Sir  Peter  Lely,  and  Bonnat  —  had  a  life-long 
passion  for  collecting  prints  and  drawings;  and 
his  well-known  stamp  on  the  back  of  some  fine 
old  print  or  sketch  is  still  an  endorsement  and 
guarantee  of  its  quality. 

I  have  never  seen  mention  made  of  the  curious 
circumstance   that   many  portrait  painters   seem 


54         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

to  have  unconsciously  given  to  their  sitters  a 
shade  of  resemblance  to  their  own  features.  Van 
Dyck's  portraits  nearly  all  bear  a  trace  of  the 
master's  own  elegance  of  face  and  figure,  the  works 
of  Holbein  and  Rubens  give  countenance  to  the 
same  theory,  and  Rembrandt's  magnificent  por- 
traits, though  showing  such  a  wonderful  variety, 
yet  all  bear  a  more  or  less  remote  resemblance  to 
Rembrandt  himself.  The  same  is  true  of  Sir 
Joshua's.  This  may  be  partly,  but  not  entirely, 
accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  not  only  do  the 
individuals  of  any  one  nation  bear  a  certain 
resemblance  to  each  other,  and  that  the  same  is 
true  of  the  whole  people  of  any  given  epoch;  but 
the  main  reason  seems  to  be  that  the  artist  un- 
consciously imitates  his  own  face.  We  need  not 
always  recognize  this  resemblance  by  means  of 
a  portrait  of  the  artist  painted  by  himself;  for 
instance,  such  a  portrait  as  that  of  Reynolds 
painted  by  the  American,  Gilbert  Stuart,  shows 
us  practically  the  same  face  as  those  painted  by 
Reynolds  himself.  This  theory  has  been  con- 
firmed by  a  distinguished  American  artist  whom  I 
have  consulted.  He  states  further  that,  in  his 
experience,  if  two  students  are  drawing  from  the 
same  model,  the  one  of  whom  is  tall  and  slender, 
and  the  other  short  and  robust,  each  will  be  sure 
to  impart  to  his  drawing  a  good  deal  of  his  own 
physical  proportions. 

In  1784  Reynolds  lost  his  old  friend,  Dr.  John- 
son. A  short  time  previously  Johnson  had  writ- 
ten to  him:  "We  are  now  old  acquaintance,  and 


SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS  55 

perhaps  few  people  have  lived  so  much  and  so 
long  together  with  less  cause  of  complaint  on 
either  side."  The  day  before  he  died  he  sent  for 
Sir  Joshua  and  told  him  he  had  three  requests 
to  make  of  him.  The  first  was  to  forgive  him  a 
debt  of  thirty  pounds  (that  was  easily  granted); 
the  second  was  to  read  his  Bible  regularly,  and 
the  third  was  to  refrain  from  painting  on  the 
Sabbath  day.  Sir  Joshua,  in  the  fulness  of  his 
heart,  promised  everything;  but  he  afterward 
found  the  third  promise  so  irksome  that,  after 
having  consulted  his  friends,  he  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  his  old  friend  had  no  right  to  bind 
him  to  such  a  promise,  and  so  he  resumed  his 
brush  on  the  Sabbath. 

Reynolds  himself  was  now  growing  old;  but  in 
1785  he  painted  the  admirable  portrait  of  John 
Hunter  which  has  been  so  finely  engraved  by 
William  Sharp,  and  the  same  year  he  spent  a 
thousand  pounds  on  pictures  for  his  own  collec- 
tion. His  enthusiasm  for  fine  things  was  as  strong 
as  ever,  and  it  was  by  his  advice  that  the  Duke 
of  Portland  purchased  the  famous  antique  Port- 
land Vase  which  is  now  the  pride  of  the  British 
Museum.  He  continued  to  go  into  society  as 
before,  and  he  was  present  at  some  of  the  great 
speeches  delivered  by  Burke  and  Sheridan  at 
the  trial  of  Warren  Hastings.  In  1789,  while 
painting,  he  was  stricken  with  a  disease  of  the 
eyes  —  the  same  malady  which  caused  the  blind- 
ness of  Milton,  and  thereafter  he  could  paint 
very  little.  But  he  bore  his  affliction  with  great 


56         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

serenity,  comforted  by  the  loving  attentions  of 
his  "troops  of  friends,"  or  in  their  absence  amus- 
ing himself  with  his  pet  birds.  He  also  made  an 
exhibition  of  his  valuable  collection  of  old  paintings 
and  handed  the  proceeds  to  his  servant.  In  1792 
he  was  found  to  be  incurably  ill  from  a  disease 
of  the  liver,  and  on  February  23  he  died. 

He  was  buried  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  close  by 
the  tomb  of  his  fellow  townsman  Sir  Christopher 
Wren,  the  architect  of  the  great  church,  where  his 
statue  by  Flaxman  now  occupies  a  conspicuous 
place.  "Never  was  a  funeral  of  ceremony  at- 
tended with  so  much  sincere  concern  by  all  sorts 
of  people,"  writes  Edmund  Burke;  and  he  adds: 
"Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  was,  on  many  accounts, 
one  of  the  most  memorable  men  of  his  time.  He 
was  the  first  Englishman  who  added  the  praise 
of  the  elegant  arts  to  the  other  glories  of  his 
country.  In  taste,  in  grace,  in  facility,  in  happy 
invention,  and  in  the  richness  and  harmony  of 
coloring,  he  was  the  equal  of  the  greatest  masters 
of  the  renowned  ages.  In  portraits  he  went  beyond 
them.  In  these  he  appeared  not  to  be  raised 
upon  that  platform,  but  to  descend  upon  it  from 
a  higher  sphere." 

This  is  lofty  praise;  but  notwithstanding  the 
stately  periods  of  Burke  the  best  summary  of 
Sir  Joshua's  character  and  genius  seems  to  be 
the  facetious  mock-epitaph  which  in  a  merry 
hour,  years  before  the  death  of  either,  his  dear 
friend  Goldsmith  wrote  upon  him: 


SIR  JOSHUA  REYNOLDS  57 

Here  Reynolds  is  laid,  and  to  tell  you  my  mind, 
He  has  not  left  a  wiser  or  better  behind, 
His  pencil  was  striking,  resistless,  and  grand; 
His  manners  were  gentle,  complying,  and  bland; 
Still  born  to  improve  us  in  every  part; 
His  pencil  our  faces,  his  manners  our  heart: 
To  coxcombs  averse,  yet  most  civilly  steering, 
When  they  judged  without  skill,  he  was  still  hard  of  hearing: 
When  they  talked  of  their  Raphaels,  Correggios,  and  stuff, 
He  shifted  his  trumpet  and  only  took  snuff! 

As  the  train  recedes  from  such  cities  as  Cologne 
or  Strassburg  or  Amiens,  the  observant  passenger 
will  have  noticed  that  while  the  ordinary  build- 
ings of  the  city  gradually  sink  down  to  a  dim  and 
inconspicuous  level,  the  great  cathedral  looms 
up  vaster  and  grander,  until  at  last  it  seems  to 
stand  alone  in  its  dignity  and  glory.  It  is  so  with 
some  human  lives;  and  it  is  so  with  the  memory 
of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds. 


SAMUEL  COUSINS,  R.  A. 

MEZZOTINT   ENGRAVER 

'TTMIE  mezzotint  process  is,  in  one  respect, 
A  radically  different  from  all  other  methods 
of  engraving  on  metal  plates.  In  line  engraving, 
stipple  or  dotted  work,  aquatint,  etching  and  dry- 
point,  it  is  by  the  laying  in  of  the  black  line  or 
tone  that  the  engraver  produces  his  picture;  but 
in  mezzotint  he  begins  with  a  solid  black  and 
makes  his  picture  by  supplying  the  white  or  the 
intermediate  tones  between  black  and  white. 

The  invention  of  this  art,  for  nearly  two 
centuries,  had  been  claimed  for  Prince  Rupert,  the 
military  hero  who  was  born  at  Prague  in  1619, 
but  recent  research  demonstrates  that  the  real 
inventor  of  the  process  was  Ludwig  Von  Siegen,  a 
soldier  friend  of  Prince  Rupert's.  In  the  year 
1839  an  ingenious  Frenchman  discovered  Von 
Siegen's  original  letter  to  the  prince,  describing 
to  him  the  new  method  of  engraving  which  he 
had  invented.  This  letter  was  dated  August, 
1642. 

In  any  case  it  was  Prince  Rupert  who  intro- 
duced the  new  process  into  England,  and  so  thor- 
oughly did  the  English  adopt  and  develop  it  that 
mezzotint  engraving  is  still  called  by  the  French 
la  maniere  anglaise;  and  from  the  middle  of  the 

58 


SAMUEL  COUSINS,  R.  A.  59 

eighteenth  century  to  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth, plates  were  produced  in  England  which, 
for  beauty,  richness,  and  genuine  artistic  value 
have  never  since  been  equaled  —  except  by  Sam- 
uel Cousins  himself.  Of  these  eighteenth  century 
mezzotinters  some  of  the  greatest  names  are  Mac- 
Ardell,  Earlom,  and  Pether.  It  was  of  the  Irish 
engraver,  MacArdell,  that  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds 
made  the  generous  declaration:  "By  this  man  I 
shall  be  immortalized!" 

Other  mezzotinters  who  worked  in  the  method 
of  MacArdell  and  his  contemporaries  were  William 
Ward,  Doughty,  Fisher,  John  Jones,  and  John 
Raphael  Smith.  This  great  tradition  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  school  of  mezzotinting  was  most 
worthily  carried  on  by  Samuel  W.  Reynolds,  who 
was  born  in  1773.  An  exhibition  of  this  engraver's 
works  would  be  a  delight  to  all  lovers  of  fine 
prints;  and  one  of  his  chief  claims  to  an  assured 
place  in  the  Temple  of  Fame  is  that  he  was  the 
teacher  of  at  least  tw*o  veritable  masters  of  mezzo- 
tint engraving  — David  Lucas  and  Samuel  Cousins. 
The  English  painter,  Constable  (predecessor  of 
the  French  landscape  school  of  Corot,  Theodore 
Rousseau,  and  Daubigny)  soon  appropriated  David 
Lucas  to  his  sevice,  while  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence 
-  the  most  eminent  portrait  painter  after  the 
death  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  —  most  gladly 
availed  himself  of  the  subordinate  genius  of  Sam- 
uel Cousins. 

Of  this  happy  collaboration  of  a  great  portrait 
painter  with  a  great  engraver,  we  read  in  that 


60         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

standard  book,  Les  Merveilles  de  la  Gravure,  by 
Duplessis,  late  curator  of  the  great  Paris  collec- 
tion of  engravings:  "Sir  Thomas  Lawrence  met 
with  one  engraver,  Samuel  Cousins,  who  pro- 
duced some  masterpieces  after  his  paintings. 
We  may  specially  mention  the  portrait  of  Pope 
Pius  VII  —  the  best  mezzotint  of  modern  times. 
Thoroughly  well  instructed  in  his  art,  Cousins 
has  in  this  portrait  preserved  all  the  life  and  gran- 
deur of  the  original.  He  has  managed  the  light 
with  the  greatest  tact  and  has  drawn  the  pon- 
tiff's head  with  a  power  unknown  to  most  of  his 
contemporaries. ' ' 

It  must  be  remembered  that  in  those  good  old 
days  photography  and  modern  "process"  work 
were  unknown;  and  if  an  eminent  painter  wished 
to  have  the  essential  part  of  his  picture  reproduced 
and  multiplied  he  was  obliged  to  employ  the  ser- 
vices of  an  expert  engraver.  Thus  the  painter 
and  the  engraver  worked  toward  the  same  end, 
and  the  result  is  the  existence  of  many  master- 
pieces. We  shall  never  again  have  any  more  of 
them,  for  photography,  and  mechanical  proc- 
esses founded  on  photography,  have  killed  repro- 
ductive engraving.  This  sad  circumstance  has 
already  greatly  enhanced  the  value  of  the  best 
of  the  old  engravings  —  so  much  so  that  several 
of  the  eighteenth  century  mezzotints  have  re- 
cently sold  at  auction  in  London  at  from  £300  to 
£1200  sterling  each;  such  prices  for  single  prints 
being  in  many  cases  greater  than  the  painter  of 
the  original  received  for  the  picture  itself.  And 


SAMUEL  COUSINS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  17^  by  13f  inches. 
From  the  etching  by  Charles  Waltner,  after  the  painting  by  Frank  Holl, 


MASTER   LAMBTOX 

Size  of  the  original  print,  15  j  by  llf  inches. 

From  the  mezzotint  engraving  by  Samuel  Cousins  (1801-1887),  after  the  painting  by  Sir 
Thomas  Lawrence.  Engraved  in  1827.  The  son  of  J.  G.  Lambton,  Lord  Durham. 
The  original  painting  was  exhibited  at  the  Royal  Academy  in  1825. 


SAMUEL  COUSINS,  R.  A.  61 

for  this  there  is  a  very  good  reason.  If  to-day 
one  wishes  to  know  what  some  of  the  existing 
pictures  by,  say,  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  were  orig- 
inally like,  he  must  consult  —  not  the  painting 
-  which  often  has  changed  and  faded,  but  some 
contemporary  mezzotint  after  it,  which  is  now  as 
fresh  as  ever. 

One  curious  circumstance  connected  with  the 
old  masterpieces  of  portrait  engraving  is,  —  that 
although  each  portrait  was  originally  produced 
for  the  sake  of  the  man  or  woman  whose  likeness 
was  therein  depicted,  yet,  as  most  human  beings 
very  soon  "outlive  their  own  immortality," 
it  has  come  to  pass  that  to-day  many  a  man 
would  be  totally  forgotten  were  it  not  for  some 
beautiful  portrait  of  him  which  is  still  known 
and  valued.  The  lost  souls  in  Dante's  Inferno 
had  a  pathetic  longing  to  be  still  remembered  on 
the  earth.  It  is  an  instinct  of  humanity;  and 
so,  happy  is  he  whose  portrait  has  been  engraved 
by  a  master! 

Samuel  Cousins,  although  a  very  able  draughts- 
man, and  endowed  with  the  power  to  make  admi- 
rable likenesses  from  life,  yet  devoted  his  talents 
to  reproducing  the  work  of  other  men.  Many 
print-lovers  of  our  day  condemn  every  engraving 
which  is  not  "original"  -that  is,  which  is  not 
the  design  of  the  engraver  himself.  If  this  theory 
had  been  adopted  in  former  times  it  would  have 
deprived  the  world  of  many  of  the  finest  engravings 
in  existence.  The  reason  is  that,  in  nearly  every 
case,  the  original  creative  designer  did  not  know 


62         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

how  to  etch  or  engrave,  and  therefore  he  was 
glad  to  avail  himself  of  the  technical  skill  of  the 
expert  engraver.  Are  Wagner's  compositions, 
for  example,  never  to  be  performed  by  trained 
instrumentalists  because  that  great  creative 
musician  has  admitted  that  he  himself  had  not 
the  technical  skill  to  worthily  play  -  -  even  on 
the  piano  —  the  music  which  his  genius  had 
created? 

Samuel  Cousins  was  born  in  the  city  of  Exeter 
in  the  year  1801.  At  the  age  of  eleven  he  won  a 
prize  for  drawing,  and  at  the  age  of  twelve  a  medal 
from  the  London  Society  of  Arts.  When  thirteen 
years  old  he  was  bound  apprentice  for  seven 
years  to  the  eminent  mezzotint-engraver,  Samuel 
W.  Reynolds,  and,  after  the  completion  of  his 
apprenticeship,  he  worked  with  Reynolds  for 
three  years  more.  During  this  latter  period 
about  eighty  beautiful  plates  which  were  signed 
by  Reynolds  were  really  engraved  by  Cousins. 
Sir  Seymour  Haden  tells  us  that  as  early  as  the 
time  of  Rembrandt  it  was  the  custom  of  a  master 
to  publish  as  his  own  the  best  work  of  clever 
apprentices. 

After  his  ten  years  of  service  with  Reynolds, 
Cousins  wished  to  establish  himself  as  a  painter 

•  of  portraits  in  miniature.  But  the  painters,  the 
publishers,  and  the  public  would  not  allow  him 
to  carry  out  his  personal  choice,  and  these  cir- 
cumstances forced  him  to  remain  a  mezzotint- 

.  engraver  —  reproducing  the  work  of  other  men  to 
the  end  of  his  long  and  laborious  life. 


SAMUEL  COUSINS,  R.  A.  63 

In  1835  he  was  elected  to  membership  in  the 
Royal  Academy,  a  circumstance  in  which  he  took 
great  pleasure,  and  of  which  he  was  very  proud. 
It  is  all  very  well  for  disappointed  outsiders  to 
affect  to  make  light  of  the  magic  letters,  "R.  A.," 
after  a  British  artist's  name,  yet  in  our  own  day 
American  artists  of  such  power  as  John  S.  Sargent 
and  Edwin  A.  Abbey  did  not  reject  the  coveted 
"R.  A.,"  when  it  was  offered  to  them. 

Although  it  is  probable  that  Cousins  has  left 
us  a  greater  number  of  really  first-class  mezzo- 
tints than  any  other  engraver,  yet  his  work  was 
unequal.  This  was  caused  (as  it  is  in  the  case  of 
some  very  popular  writers)  by  the  importunities 
of  the  publishers.  They  wanted  from  him  far 
more  than  he  could  produce;  and  although  his 
second  best  plates  were  apt  to  be  finer  than  an- 
other man's  best,  yet  it  was  only  when  he  was  not 
pushed  and  hurried  that  we  see  Samuel  Cousins 
at  his  best. 

When  he  had  attained  the  age  of  seventy-four 
years,  Cousins  resolved  to  retire  from  the  prac- 
tise of  his  profession.  "Hitherto,"  he  said,  "I 
have  only  suffered  existence  —  now  I  want  to 
live."  He  had  often  complained  of  the  solitude 
which  his  work  imposed  upon  him.  "Solitary 
confinement  with  hard  labor,"  he  used  to  call 
it.  He  was  rich,  he  was  famous,  he  was  still  in 
excellent  health,  and  he  wanted  to  amuse  him- 
self. But  this  was  not  to  be.  He  thought  that 
he  could  rid  himself  of  commissions  by  putting  a 
prohibitive  price  on  his  work,  and  with  this  view, 


64         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

in  response  to  the  proposition  of  a  publisher,  he 
demanded  the  unheard-of  price  of  1,500  guineas 
for  a  plate  after  Gainsborough  —  and  to  his  amaze- 
ment the  publisher  at  once  agreed  to  his  terms. 
Similar  offers  of  the  most  liberal  character  in- 
duced Cousins,  from  time  to  time,  to  undertake 
"just  one  more  plate";  and  it  was  during  these 
last  years  of  his  life  that  he  produced  some  of 
his  very  best  work.  His  last  plate  was  engraved 
in  his  eighty-third  year.  Very  appropriately  it 
was  his  own  portrait,  done  after  the  painting  by 
Edwin  Long,  R.  A.  In  looking  at  this  firm  and 
strong  piece  of  work  we  are  reminded  of  the  text 
which  describes  Moses  of  old  in  extreme  age: 
"His  eye  was  not  dim  nor  his  natural  strength 
abated,"  and  yet  the  engraver  had  been  working 
at  his  art  for  seventy-one  years. 

Notwithstanding  all  this  occupation,  Cousins 
found  time  to  "set  his  house  in  order,"  and  in 
making  his  will  he  manifested  not  only  his  kindly 
nature,  but  also  his  respect  for  art  and  artists. 
He  bequeathed  £15,000  sterling  to  the  Royal 
Academy  —  the  interest  to  be  devoted  to  the  aid- 
ing of  artists  of  merit  in  their  declining  years. 
No  one  beneficiary  was  to  receive  an  annuity  of 
more  than  £80.  At  the  present  time  this  endow- 
ment yields  nine  annuities  of  £80  each.  He  also 
left  £1,000  to  the  Artist's  Benevolent  Fund  and 
£5,000  to  the  Artist's  Orphan  Fund.  He  never 
married,  but  besides  the  public  benefactions  already 
mentioned  he  left  liberal  bequests  to  members  of 
his  own  family. 


SAMUEL  COUSINS,  R.  A.  65 

Samuel  Cousins  died  on  the  7th  of  May,  1887. 
Personally  he  was  a  reserved,  quiet  man,  and  in 
no  respect  a  wild,  erratic,  self -proclaimed  "gen- 
ius." He  modestly  chose  to  make  his  work  his 
monument;  allowing  his  fame  to  take  care  of 
itself  —  as  it  has  done ! 


THE  MODERN  DISCIPLES  OF 
REMBRANDT 

Reprinted,  by  permission,  from  the  "Art  Review'9 

REMBRANDT,  who  was  born  in  Holland  in 
1606  and  died  there  in  1665,  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  great  representative  etcher  for  all 
time.  He  did  not  originate  the  process;  but, 
having  found  it  in  a  crude  and  undeveloped  state, 
he  carried  it  to  a  height  of  perfection  which,  as  a 
whole,  has  never  since  been  equaled. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  achievements  of  the 
modern  school  in  the  various  details  of  etching, 
dry-point,  management  of  the  aqua-fortis,  methods 
of  printing,  and  so  forth,  it  is  probably  true  that 
every  one  of  these  refinements  of  the  art  was  known 
and  practised  by  Rembrandt  himself.  He  knew 
well  how  to  vary  effects  by  different  styles  of 
printing,  was  well  acquainted  with  the  virtues  of 
Japanese  and  verge  papers,  and  on  rare  occasions 
he  even  printed  proofs  on  satin. 

From  the  etcher's  point  of  view  all  that  this 
great  master  produced  was  so  right,  that  now,  after 
the  lapse  of  two  centuries,  there  is  probably  no 
etcher  living  who  would  not  be  proud  to  call 
himself  a  "Disciple  of  Rembrandt."  Etching  is 
such  a  many-sided  process  that  it  seems  to  yield 
an  inexhaustible  variety  of  effects;  but  to  illus- 

66 


THE   RISING   MOON 

Size  of  the  original  print,  4f  by  7|  inches. 

Samuel  Palmer,  the  English  painter  and  etcher,  was,  by  nature,  a  poet.  His 
translation  from  the  Latin,  into  English  verse,  of  the  Eclogues  of  Virgil,  is  a 
standard  authority. 


THE   EARLY  PLOUGHMAN 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5j  by  7f  inches. 

Philip  Gilbert  Hamerton  considers  that  this  is,  on  the  whole,  the  6nest  of  Palmer's 

plates. 


AUTUMN  IN  THE  MORVAN 

Size  of  the  original   print,  4|  by  7|  inches. 


COWS  IN  A  POOL 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5  by  8f  inches. 

From  the  original  etchings  by  the  French  master,  Charles  Daubigny  (1815-1878).     Some  of 
Daubigny's  paintings  were  elaborated  from  his  earlier  etchings  of  the  same  subject. 


MODERN  DISCIPLES  OF  REMBRANDT       67 

trate  how  truly  Rembrandt  "being  dead,  yet 
speaketh,"  a  remarkable  experience  of  the  pres- 
ent writer  may  be  related.  Years  ago,  when 
traveling  through  continental  Europe,  it  was  his 
habit  to  carry  with  him  a  selection  of  the  etch- 
ings of  Seymour  Haden.  When  these  were  shown, 
for  the  first  time,  to  some  artist  or  amateur,  the 
comment  usually  was:  "School  of  Rembrandt." 
And  in  later  years,  after  our  own  American  etchers 
began  to  produce  such  fine  work,  the  general 
remark  of  these  same  experts,  on  seeing  some  speci- 
mens of  it,  was:  "School  of  Seymour  Haden." 

After  the  death  of  Rembrandt,  etching  seems,1 
in  a  great  measure,  to  have  declined  from  its 
legitimate  uses,  until  it  became  a  mere  adjunct 
to  line  engraving,  the  engraver  using  it  for  the 
coarser  preliminary  work  of  his  plate  before  finish- 
ing with  the  burin.  Many  plates  were  also  pro- 
duced entirely  by  the  etching  process;  but,  as  the 
etched  line  was  made  to  imitate  as  closely  as 
possible  the  formal'  and  rigid  appearance  of  the 
engraved  line,  the  result  was  a  coarse  and  inferior! 
substitute  for  line-engraving.  Etching  could 
never,  however,  achieve  the  mathematical  preci- 
sion of  the  burin  any  more  than  the  burin  could 
give  the  free  and  spirited  touch  of  the  etching- 
needle;  and  it  seems  to  have  been  forgotten  that 
this  seeming  defect  was  in  reality  its  greatest 
charm. 

A  curious  instance  of  this  blindness  to  the  artis- 
tic charm  of  the  free  and  frank  work  of  the 
painter-etcher  is  seen  in  the  Iconography  of  Van 


68         THE   GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Dyck.  This  great  master  etched  a  series  of  por- 
traits of  contemporary  artists.  He  did  his  work 
with  the  greatest  economy  of  labor,  but  in  a  superb 
style.  These  plates  were  then  (presumably  with 
the  consent  of  Van  Dyck)  handed  over  to  such 
excellent  engravers  as  Bolswert,  Suyderhoef,  and 
Vorsterman,  who  finished  them  with  the  burin. 
But  before  they  were  thus  finished,  a  few  proofs 
of  the  pure  etchings  were  taken.  And  now,  after 
the  lapse  of  two  centuries,  it  has  happened  to  the 
writer  to  purchase  one  of  these  portraits  in  both 
states  —  namely,  the  unfinished  etching  as  Van 
Dyck  left  it,  and  the  same  with  the  engraver's 
work  superadded;  but  he  paid  just  fourteen  hun- 
dred times  as  much  for  the  "unfinished"  as  for 
the  "finished"  print! 

This,  of  course,  is  an  extreme  case,  and  does 
not  demonstrate  that  all  etching  is  precious  and 
all  engraving  worthless.  Such  attempts  have 
been  made;  but  no  amount  of  argument  can  dis- 
prove the  fact  that  all  art  lovers  owe  a  debt  of 
gratitude  to  the  engravers  in  line  and  mezzotint, 
who  have  done  noble  work  in  the  past  and  who 
have  preserved  to  the  world  many  masterpieces 
of  which  the  originals  have  perished.  The  likeli- 
hood is  that  in  the  future  the  etching-needle  will 
supersede  the  burin;  but  this  cannot  invalidate 
the  value  of  the  old  engravings,  and  the  two 
sister  arts  should  be  regarded  as  being  friends, 
not  enemies. 

While  Rembrandt,  Van  Dyck,  and  some  others 
were  working  in  the  Netherlands,  their  great 


CROWS  PERCHING   IN  A  TREE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7j  by  11  inches. 


THE  MARSH  WITH  STORKS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5j  by  8  inches. 
From  the  original  etchings  by  Daubigny. 


O  .S  c 

Ifl 

p    o.2 
O    i*  "^ 

*o"3 
£S 

••a 

cS 
1 


MODERN  DISCIPLES  OF  REMBRANDT       69 

contemporary,  Claude  Lorrain,  was  painting  or 
etching  his  beautiful  classical  landscapes  in  France 
and  Italy.  As  an  etcher,  he  was  somewhat 
unequal,  but  a  few  of  his  best  plates  have  never 
been  surpassed  for  tenderness  and  beauty. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  event  in  the  his- 
tory of  etching  is  the  wonderful  revival  of  the  art 
which  took  place  toward  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  Etching  had  degenerated  from 
its  true  principles  as  exemplified  by  Rembrandt, 
until  it  sunk  into  a  coarse  and  easy  substitute  for 
line  engraving,  instead  of  being  as  free  and  untram- 
meled  as  the  clouds  in  a  summer  sky,  when  a  few 
thoughtful  artists  in  France  and  England  awoke 
to  the  conviction  that  it  was  an  art  apart,  and  with 
a  language  of  its  own.  For  this  revival  we  are 
chiefly  indebted  to  the  French  school,  although, 
before  the  general  movement  had  commenced  in 
France,  at  least  one  British  artist,  Sir  David 
Wilkie,  had,  as  early  as  1825,  produced  both  etch- 
ing and  dry-point  work  of  the  right  sort. 

Charles  Jacque  began  to  etch  in  the  year  1830, 
and  although  few  artists  are  better  known  through 
their  paintings,  yet  this  veteran  found  time 
during  his  long  life  to  produce  nearly  five  hundred 
plates,  and  of  these  his  latest  are  perhaps  his 
best.  One  of  the  few  surviving  pioneers  is  Leopold 
Flameng.  It  is  related  of  him  that  he  never 
failed  to  execute  a  plate  but  once.  When  his  son 
Frangois  won  the  great  medal  of  honor  of  the 
Paris  Salon  with  his  painting  of  the  "Prisoners 
of  Carcassone,"  the  father  was  so  much  overcome 


70         THE   GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

with  emotion  that  he  could  not  etch  the  picture! 
Leon  Gaucherel  died  in  1886.  He  once  said, 
and  with  as  much  truth  as  modesty,  "My  best 
works  are  my  pupils.'*  He  was  especially  emi- 
nent as  a  teacher:  Rajon,  Courtry,  Lalauze, 
LeRat,  and  Felix  Buhot  all  learned  their  art  from 
him.  Of  these  distinguished  artists,  Felix  Buhot 
is  perhaps  the  best  known  to  the  American  public; 
and  he  is,  in  his  way,  the  most  remarkable  of 
them  all.  Until  Buhot  had  demonstrated  the 
contrary,  it  was  supposed  that  all  the  resources 
of  etching  had  been  developed  and  employed; 
but  it  remained  for  him  to  achieve  something 
absolutely  new  in  this  much-tried  field. 

To  return  to  the  pioneers  of  the  modern  revival, 
we  come  to  the  great  names  of  Jean-Frangois 
Millet  and  Charles  Meryon.  Millet  painted  and 
etched  in  poverty  which  amounted  to  absolute 
want.  Meryon's  case  was  even  worse,  for  he 
actually  went  insane  from  hunger  and  neglect, 
and  so  died.  And  now,  all  too  late,  the  etchings 
of  these  two  masters  are  eagerly  purchased  at 
prices  that  to  them  would  have  seemed  wildly 
incredible. 

Other  notable  French  etchers  who  took  part 
in  the  movement  were  Bracquemond,  Lalanne, 
Appian,  Martial,  and  Jacquemart.  Also  such 
famous  painters  as  Corot,  Fortuny,  Meissonier, 
and  Detaille.  Valuable  aid  of  another  sort  was 
given  by  the  eminent  writer  Philippe  Burty. 
He  was  the  first  to  call  public  attention  to  the 
etched  work  of  such  masters  as  Seymour  Haden, 


UXE   MARE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  9j  by  6|  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Adolphe  Appian.  Appian,  who  was  born  in  1819,  was  a  pupil 
of  Corot,  and  of  Daubigny,  and  his  paintings  and  etchings  are  held  in  high 
estimation  by  collectors. 


* 

g'E, 
c  * 

B  -j 


tn   C 

Sa 
VI 

•2  a 


e  » 


a 

x 

i— i 

5 

3 

cc 

- 

<!    H 


H 

ffi    d1^ 
EH  'CO.* 

r         a°-  «i*0 

fe  r=^:  "2  oo 
O  Jgl  « 

C3   '^    °  2 

y  °  ~s  °  w 

£q  QJ  —  h— i  o 
U  •£  &*-  S 
Q  •Z"3_3es 

en  *S  ^  5  w 

K  "a  «  2 


<!    to    3 


3    2P 


MODERN  DISCIPLES  OF  REMBRANDT       71 

Meryon,  and  Millet;  and  being  a  critic  whose 
opinion  carried  with  it  great  authority,  his  timely 
recognition  of  the  art  was  a  powerful  factor  in 
its  material  success.  Important  assistance  of  still 
another  kind  was  given  by  the  plate-printer  Au- 
guste  Delatre.  And  it  is  a  fortunate  circumstance 
that  the  etchers  of  the  past  thirty  years  had  in 
Delatre  a  printer  of  consummate  ability.  He  was  an 
artist  by  nature  and  instinct  if  not  by  profession. 

It  was  said  of  the  French  by  Bulwer  Lytton, 
that  they  are  "great  in  all  the  arts,  but  supreme 
in  none."  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  probable  that 
the  two  greatest  names  in  modern  etching  are 
those  of  an  Englishman,  and  an  American  domi- 
ciled in  England,  —  namely,  Francis  Seymour 
Haden  and  James  McNeill  Whistler. 

By  general  consent  Seymour  Haden  ranks  as 
the  greatest  of  modern  etchers.  How  this  busy 
and  successful  London  surgeon  took  up  etching 
as  a  pastime,  and  how  with  it  he  has  beaten  the 
professional  artists  on  their  own  ground,  is  a  story 
too  well  known  to  be  repeated  here.  It  seems 
almost  a  pity  that  Seymour  Haden,  in  his  jealous 
care  for  the  quality  of  his  work,  has  seen  fit  to 
destroy  many  of  his  plates,  so  as  to  prevent  the 
possibility  of  inferior  impressions  being  printed 
from  them  in  the  future.  One  result  is  that  the 
proofs  have  become  excessively  rare,  and  those 
amateurs  who  have  the  good  fortune  to  possess 
some  may  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that 
their  value  has  fully  quadrupled  since  they  were 
first  published. 


72         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

The  Shere  Mill-pond  is  usually  accounted  his 
masterpiece,  but  a  smaller  and  less  known  plate 
entitled  the  Water  Meadow  deserves  special  men- 
tion. It  represents  a  level  English  landscape,  with 
trees  in  the  distance.  In  this  etching  the  wise 
"labor  of  omission"  is  everywhere  apparent,  and 
yet  none  of  the  essentials  of  the  scene  are  lacking. 
The  eminent  London  critic  Frederick  Wedmore 
writes  of  it  as  "that  unsurpassed  masterpiece,"  and 
the  artist's  severest  critic — namely,  himself — has 
privately  written  of  it  in  this  characteristic  way: 
"I  like  this  plate,  which  is  saying  a  great  deal." 

Seymour  Haden1  now  declares  that  his  work  as 
an  etcher  is  finished  and  that  he  will  etch  no  more. 
He  surely  has  won  laurels  to  rest  on.  He  quit 
London  years  ago  and  retired  to  his  beautiful  old 
mansion  in  Hampshire,  where  the  writer  once 
found  him  at  work,  felling,  with  his  own  hands, 
some  of  the  superfluous  timber  on  the  estate,  and 
wielding  the  axe  with  a  vigor  that  would  have 
compelled  the  admiration  of  Mr.  Gladstone  himself. 

I  Whistler  may  be  called  the  etchers'  etcher. 
So  competent  a  judge  as  Storm  van's  Gravesande 
said  of  him,  "He  is  the  master  of  us  all." 
Whistler,  though  a  decided  non -conformist  in 
>  social  matters,  was,  nevertheless,  a  lion  in  London 
society.  He  loved  to  befog  and  mystify  the  good 
people  of  that  most  conventional  capital  with  his 
bright  and  original  wit,  and  it  was  not  easy  to 
know  when  he  was  to  be  taken  seriously  and 
when  he  was  only  "poking  fun." 

1  Sir  Seymour  Haden  died  June  1,  1910. 


ON  THE  VECHT,  HOLLAND 

Size  of  the  original  print,  11  j  by  19  inches. 


LANDING  OF  THE  HERRING   FLEET 

Size  of  the  original  print,  14  by  18  inches. 

From  the  dry-points  by  Charles  Storm  van's  Gravesande.  The  treatment  of 
the  sky  and  of  the  sea  in  these  two  plates  is  a  fine  example  of  the  artist's  "econ- 
omy of  means." 


MODERN  DISCIPLES  OF  REMBRANDT       73 

Germany  and  Italy  have  contributed  compar- 
atively very  little  to  the  modern  renaissance  of 
etching.  Holland  (of  old  the  land  of  etchers 
par  excellence)  has,  in  our  day,  produced  in  the 
person  of  Storm  van's  Gravesande  one  veritable 
master.  His  etchings  and  dry-points  deserve 
the  great  reputation  which  they  have  won,  and 
he  is  to-day  a  favorite  with  American  amateurs. 
A  remarkable  feature  in  his  work  is  the  apparent 
ease  and  simplicity  with  which  the  most  beauti- 
ful effects  are  realized.  One  of  our  best  critics 
writes,  "I  find  Storm  van's  Gravesande  the  ideal 
painter-etcher,  whose  lines  are  so  fused  and  lost 
in  the  perfect  whole  that  we  feel  and  see  what 
is  done,  with  never  a  thought  for  the  means 
whereby  it  got  itself  done.  It  is  a  comfort  to 
sit  down  before  the  work  of  such  an  artist  as  this." 
One  of  his  later  works  —  the  very  large  dry-point 
plate  of  the  Cathedral  of  Dordrecht  —  is,  in 
itself,  a  refutation  of  the  too  sweeping  assertion 
of  some  critics  that  any  plate  of  large  size  must, 
of  necessity,  be  bad  as  art. 

In  activity  and  success  the  American  school 
of  to-day  comes  next  after  the  French.  The 
practical  directness  of  the  American  mind  is 
favorable  both  to  the  production  and  to  the  pop- 
ularity of  etching,  and  it  is  an  encouraging  fact 
that  the  American  public  manifests  a  distinct 
liking  for  the  etchings  of  our  own  artists.  The 
limits  and  scope  of  the  present  article  have  cur- 
tailed it  in  many  points,  and  have  rendered  it 
impossible  to  make  detailed  mention  of  the  home 


74         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

school;  but  the  subject  has  been  excellently  treated 
in  two  publications,  which  are  here  cordially 
recommended,  —  namely,  American  Etchers,  by 
Mrs.  Schuyler  van  Rensselaer,  and  "Etching  in 
America,"  by  Mr.  Ripley  Hitchcock. 

To  those  who  possess  Philip  Gilbert  Hamerton's 
book,  Etching  and  Etchers,  no  word  need  be  said; 
but  to  all  others  who  are  capable  of  paying  five 
dollars  for  a  handsome  and  finely  illustrated 
octavo  volume  of  450  pages,  we  would  venture 
to  say  that  if  they  will  buy  this  book  and  read 
it,  they  will  not  be  sorry.  It  would  be  poor  praise 
to  call  it  "as  interesting  as  a  novel."  It  seems 
impossible  that  a  better  book  could  be  written 
on  the  subject,  both  as  to  matter  and  style;  and 
it  is  a  veritable  treasure-house  of  sound  and 
tangible  ideas  on  art  in  general.  Having  said  so 
much  in  its  praise,  it  may  be  noted  as  singular 
that  Mr.  Hamerton's  work  omits  all  mention  of 
two  of  the  great  modern  etchers  —  Fortuny  and 
J.  F.  Millet. 

In  etching  to  toil  over  and  elaborate  an  idea 
which  is  already  broadly  indicated  is  fatal  to 
the  vividness  of  the  effect,  and  may  be  compared 
to  the  disheartening  operation  of  explaining  a 
joke  after  the  hearer  has  failed  to  "see  the  point." 

An  etching  should  appeal  to  the  imagination 
and  should  be  far  more  than  a  mere  effigy  of  the 
object  or  scene  represented.  The  personality 
and  the  feeling  of  the  artist  are  its  highest  qual- 
ities, and,  if  these  are  lacking,  it  is  not  a  work  of 
art.  Speaking  of  this  slavish  imitation  of  the 


THE  BANKS  OF  THE  THAMES 

Size  of  the  original  print,  3|  by  5f  inches. 


THE   CANAL  AT  PONT-SAINTE-MAXENCE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  6|  by  9|  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  Maxime  Lalanne.  The  drawing  of  tree-forms,  as  they  are 
outlined  against  the  sky,  is  especially  beautiful.  In  this  respect  such  a  plate 
as  "The  Banks  of  the  Thames"  is  worthy  of  Seymour  Haden  himself. 


MODERN  DISCIPLES  OF  REMBRANDT       75 

mere   externals,   Mr.   Whistler  once   uttered   the 
startling  paradox  that  "nature  is  seldom  right" 
-  and  he  was  right  as  he  meant  it. 

Should  we,  then,  have  no  elaborate  and  pains- 
taking works  of  art?     Certainly  we  should;  but, 
if  the  artist  possesses  that  cast  of  mind,  let  him 
sculpture  a  marble,  build  an  edifice,  or  write  a 
novel --but  let  him  not  etch.     Etching,  then,  is 
not  the  species  of  art  to  appeal  either  to  the  artist 
or    the    spectator    possessing    a    lazy    mentality. 
%It  is  essentially  an  intellectual  art,  and  to  intel- 
llectual  people,  etching,  like  mercy,  "blesseth  him 
1  that  gives  and  him  that  takes." 

\Ye  have  not  been  considering  etching  as  the 
means  of  copying  or  translating  the  paintings  of 
other  men,  but  original  "painter-etching,"  in 
which  the  work  is  done  by  the  creator  of  the  art 
idea,  who  in  a  sense  may  be  called  both  the  father 
and  the  mother  of  the  picture.  But  reproduc- 
Itive  etching  and  engraving,  which  render  the  paint- 
lings  of  other  men,  have  their  place  also,  and  a 
J^ery  important  place  too.  Extreme  purists  con- 
demn all  etching  which  is  not  original,  but  surely 
this  is  being  too  jstrict.  It  happens,  with  very 
few  exceptions,  that  the  greatest  painters  have 
also  been  the  greatest  etchers;  and  as  painting  is 
vastly  more  profitable  to  an  artist  than  etching,  it 
follows  that  such  men  cannot  really  afford  to  etch,, 
for  in  doing  so  they  must  make  a  serious  sacrifice. 
Such  old  masters  as  Claude  and  Van  Dyck,  or 
such  moderns  as  Millet,  Meissonier,  or  Charles 
Jacque,  could  doubtless  have  embodied  their 


76    THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

finest  creations  in  etchings  (for  they  were  all 
etchers),  but  for  the  reason  just  stated  they  could 
not  afford  to  do  so.  Are  we,  then,  to  be  deprived 
of  the  fine  prints  which  have  been  etched  by  other 
hands  after  their  pictures,  simply  because  such 

J  etchings  are  not  "original"?     Surely  not.     "Re- 
form" is  not  a  more  taking  catch-word  in  poli- 
tics than  is  "originality"  in  art.     Both  are^pften 
sadly  misused. 
-m   •'_  m  t 

It  is  true  that  the  best  painter-etchings  possess 
higher  qualities  than  any  reproductive  work  can; 
but  originality  alone  will  not  suffice,  for  there  is, 
alas,  no  scarcity  of  mediocre,  inferior,  and  even 
downright  bad  "original"  etched  work.  Take, 
for  instance,  the  case  of  Leopold  Flameng  (an 
artist  who  has  been  a  great  power  in  modern  etch- 
ing). It  is  certain  that  his  original  plates  are 
distinctly  inferior  to  those  in  which  he  has  copied 
the  designs  of  other  men.  Paul  Rajon  also, 
although  he  devoted  his  great  abilities  to  repro- 
ductive work,  was  nevertheless  equally  strong 
as  an  original  painter  and  designer. 

The  uncompromising  advocates  of  originality 
would  probably  insist  that  such  a  plate  as  Walt- 
ner's  Angelus  should  not  be  called  an  etching  at 

I  all  —  simply  because  it  is  not  original.     But  in 
this  case  we  do  not  want  originality  from  Walt- 
ner;  Millet  gives  us  that  in  his  painting,  and  all 
•  we  should  require  of  Waltner  is  that  he  give  us  a 
faithful  and  artistic  copy  or  translation  of  Mil- 
v      let's  design.     No  doubt  Millet  himself  could  have 
\  etched  it  better  than  any  one  else;  but  he  never 


OCTOBER 

Size  of  the  original  print,  21  f  by  10f  inches. 

From  the  dry-point  by  Jacques  Joseph  Tissot.  The  full  possibilities  of 
dry-point,  as  a  means  of  artistic  expression,  are  seen  in  this  beautiful 
plate,  one  of  the  masterpieces  of  the  artist. 


MAVOURNEEN 

Size  of  the  original  print,  14^  by  8  inches. 

From  the  dry-point  by  Jacques  Joseph  Tissot.     This  is  one  of  Tissot's  finest 
plates  and,  like  the  October,  an  admirable  example  of  dry-point  at  its  best. 


MODERN  DISCIPLES  OF  REMBRANDT       77 

did  —  and  meanwhile  we  are  thankful  for  Walt- 
ner's  rendition  of  that  most  lovely  picture.  Now, 
if  the  door  is  to  be  shut  against  all  reproductive 
etching,  good  and  bad  alike,  none  but  the  owner 
of  such  a  great  painting  as  the  Angelus  can  enjoy 
it;  the  walls  of  our  homes  cannot  be  adorned  with 
the  etched  reproductions  of  the  best  paintings; 
and  etching,  now  so  generally  admired,  will  dwin- 
dle down  to  the  contents  of  the  portfolios  of  a  few 
wealthy  amateurs  and  dilettanti  (since  so  many 
of  the  best  painter-etchers  are  really  unsuitable 
for  framing  by  reason  of  their  small  size  and  slight 
effect  when  seen  from  a  distance).  By  all  means 
let  the  bad  and  inartistic  reproductive  etchings 
go,  but  let  the  good  remain  and  multiply.  Let 
not  those  veritable  works  of  art  become  like  the 
impossible  orchid,  a  costly  thing  to  amuse  half 

la  dozen  people  out  of  a  million;  but  rather  let 
Ithem    be    like    the    geranium    or    morning-glory, 

/which   give   wholesome  pleasure  to  all   who  can 

J  enjoy  their  beauty. 

What  are  the  future  prospects  of  etching  con- 
sidered-as  a  fine  art? 

The  winter  of  obscurity  and  neglect  is  over,  and 
the  "glorious  summer"  of  prosperity  has  come; 
but  herein  lies  a  real  danger.  With  popularity 
its  true  artistic  side  may  be  ignored;  quantity; 
may  be  considered  rather  than  quality;  the  art 

Jmay    be    "boomed"    and    exploited    for    sordid 

I  commercial  ends,  and  men  who  are  incapable 
of  it  as  an  art  may  ply  the  making  of  etchings 
as  a  trade. 


78 


THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 


Against  this  danger  there  is,  however,  one  sure 
Iremedy.     Let    the    public    cultivate    their    judg- 
Jment  and  their  taste,  so  that  they  can  choose 
I  the  good  and  refuse  the  bad.     No  species  of  art, 
whether  good  or  bad,  can  long  exist  unless  sup- 
ported by  those  who  buy.     At  no  time  have  there 
been  so  many  good  etchers  living  and  working 
as  there  are  now  —  and  we  cannot  have  too  many 
good  etchings,  any  more  than  we  can  have  too 
many  good  books. 

There  is  no  hidden  and  mysterious  quality  in  a 
good  etching;  what  to  a  cultivated  eve  and  mind 
appears  to  be  right  and  good  is  good,  and  what 
appears  to  be  wrong  and  bad  is  bad.  And  if  the 
public  will  only  do  its  part,  the  inferior  and  inar- 
tistic will  die  of  neglect,  and  none  but  the  fittest 
will  survive. 

No  doubt  the  years  to  come  will  bring  with 
them  new  tastes  and  new  opinions.  Some  repu- 
tations that  now  stand  high  may  yet  go  down,  and 
it  may  be  that  the  child  is  now  living  whose, 
future  glory  as  an  etcher  will  eclipse  that  of  our 
great  men  of  to-day;  but  yet  we  may  feel  certain 
that  the  best  works  of  our  modern  etchers  will 
go  down  to  posterity  as  masterpieces  —  as  surely 
as  the  works  of  the  great  Rembrandt  have  come 
down  to  us. 


- 


BUTTERMILK   CHANNEL 
Size  of  the  original  print,  6f  by  10f  inches. 


WILLIAMSBURGH 
Size  of  the  original  print,  6j  by  9  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  Charles  A.  Platt  of  New  York.  "In  the  foremost  group  of 
American  painter-etchers  stands  the  work  of  Charles  A.  Platt.  Distinguished 
alike  for  vigorous  brilliancy  and  richness  of  effect,  it  shows  that  he  has  every 
variety  of  technical  means  at  his  disposal  and  is  a  master  of  each  in  some  spe- 
cial way."  —  Will  Jenkins,  "Modern  Etching  and  Engraving  in  America." 


LOW  TIDE,   BAY   OF  FUNDY 

Size  of  the  original  print,  12  by  19  inches. 


FISHERMEN'S  HOUSES,   CAPE  ANN 

Size  of  the  original  print,  12  by  19  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  Stephen  Parrish  of  Philadelphia. 

Besides  the  incomparable  etchings  of  Whistler  (who  worked  almost  entirely  in 
Europe)  other  American  painters  have  done  genuinely  good  work  in  etching. 
Among  these  men  the  name  of  Stephen  Parrish  ranks  deservedly  high.  His 
etchings  are  all  of  American  scenes. 


PERSONAL    SKETCHES    OF    SOME 
FAMOUS  ETCHERS 

An  Unpublished  Lecture  delivered  before  the  Grolier 
Club  of  New  York,  and  afterward  repeated  at 
the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  Yale  Uni- 
versity, Johns  Hopkins  University,  etc. 

IT  has  been  said  of  a  well-known  book  —  John 
Forster's  Life  of  Dickens  —  that  it  was  less  a 
biography  of  the  novelist  than  a  glorification  of 
the  biographer  himself,  and  Forster's  case  is  not 
the  only  one  which  warns  me  of  a  similar  danger 
to  myself  in  that  which  I  have  undertaken  this 
evening. 

In  addressing  you  on  the  subject  selected,  I 
am,  perforce,  somewhat  in  the  position  of  the 
old  narrator  of  whom  Tennyson  writes  that  he 
"was  himself  a  part  of  what  he  told,"  and  for  this 
reason  I  cannot  avoid  the  occasional  use  of  that 
obnoxious  personal  pronoun  "I."  But  still,  I  shall 
try  to  remember  that  while  legitimate  personal 
sketches  of  these  famous  artists  form  a  subject  of 
general  interest,  the  personality  of  the  mere  nar- 
rator does  not. 

It  is  true  that  a  less  personal  and  more  abstract 
view  of  the  artists  and  their  work  might  have 
been  chosen;  but  those  who  are  competent  to 

79 


80         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

treat  of  these  etchings  from  a  high  critical  stand- 
point may  not  have  gone  in  and  out  among  the 
etchers  themselves,  for  years,  as  I  have  done. 
It  is  also  evident  that  an  adequate  critical  review 
of  the  works  of  these  famous  etchers  cannot  be 
presented  in  an  address  of  one  hour's  duration. 
But  these  cursory  sketches  will  not  prejudice 
the  subject  hereafter,  nor  prevent  the  work  of 
any  of  these  artists  from  being  taken  up  separately 
and  treated  more  exhaustively  and  critically  by 
abler  hands  than  mine. 

No  man  is  so  sure  of  undying  fame  as  the  true 
and  great  artist.  He  who  produces  a  master- 
piece in  poetry,  music,  architecture,  sculpture, 
or  painting,  or  even  in  the  art  of  etching,  will  be 
remembered  and  revered  when  the  political  great 
ones  of  the  earth,  now  "dressed  in  a  little  brief 
authority,"  are  supplanted  and  forgotten. 

Two  and  a  half  centuries  ago  Holland  was  a 
powerful  nation,  and  the  Burgomaster  of  Amster- 
dam was  a  personage  of  the  highest  distinction. 
It  happened  that  the  Burgomaster  of  that  period 
was  a  man  who  had  the  discrimination  to  see 
something  good  in  the  paintings  and  etchings  of 
a  certain  obscure  young  artist,  who  had  left  his 
father's  windmill,  in  the  country,  and  had  come 
to  the  great  city  to  seek  his  fortune.  Not  only 
did  the  Burgomaster  buy  the  artist's  pictures, 
but  he  invited  him  to  his  house  and  made  him  his 
friend.  No  doubt  many  excellent  people  of  that 
day  were  both  puzzled  and  scandalized  at  this 
absurd  condescension  on  the  part  of  their  chief 


THE   PASSING  STORM 

Size  of  the  original  print,   12  by  18  inches. 


AN    AUGUST  DAY 

Size  of  the  original  print,  lof  by  23|  inches. 
From  the  etchings  by  Peter  Moran,  of  Philadelphia. 

The  renowned  French  painter,  Jules  Breton,  on  seeing  Peter  Moran's  etchings  in 
Paris,  asked  in  surprise  whose  works  they  were.  The  answer  given  him  was, 
"  An  American."  "  Why,  they  are  admirable,"  said  he.  "  The  man  who  etched 
those  plates  is  a  master!"  Later,  Jules  Breton  sent  to  America  and  procured 
them  for  his  own  collection,  writing  a  most  complimentary  letter  to  the  artist 
about  them. 


THE  LOCUST  GROVE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  9|  by  8^  inches. 


NOVEMBER 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8|  by  12  inches. 

From  the  dry-point  and  the  etching  by  Thomas  R.  Manley  of  New  York, 
artist's  work  is  highly  esteemed  by  American  collectors. 


This 


SOME  FAMOUS  ETCHERS  81 

citizen.  But  what  unlikely  changes  Time  some- 
times brings  about!  Both  men  are  long  dead, 
but  neither  is  forgotten.  That  artist  is  to-day  an 
object  of  almost  adoration  throughout  the  whole 
world  of  art,  and  Burgomaster  Jan  Six  is  still 
held  in  affectionate  remembrance  —  not  because 
he  was  a  burgomaster,  for  his  civic  brethren  are 
now  forgotten,  but  solely  and  entirely  because  he 
was  the  patron  and  friend  of  Rembrandt. 

Painting  is  the  supreme  art  for  depicting  nature. 
Nature  abounds  in  color,  and  painting  alone  can 
express  this  color  by  direct  imitation;  moreover, 
we  see  nature  in  masses  rather  than  in  lines. 
And  yet  etching,  with  its  simple  black  lines  on  a 
white  ground,  can  suggest  all  that  painting  can  — 
and  in  art  suggestion  is  often  more  effective  than 
complete  realization.  To  prove  this,  let  us  imag- 
ine —  if  we  can  —  the  statue  of  the  Venus  of 
Milo  with  the  lips  painted  red,  the  eyes  painted 
blue  or  gray,  and  the  hair  brown  or  golden.  Would 
it,  in  this  condition,  be  the  magnificent  work  of 
art  that  it  now  is  in  the  noble  dignity  of  pure 
white  marble? 

In  art,  then,  suggestion  is  more  powerful  than 
mere  blank  imitation;  and  etching  is  essentially 
the  suggestive  art.  Even  color  itself  is  effectively 
suggested  by  a  good  etching.  In  the  expression 
of  form,  painting  has  no  advantage,  for  color 
cannot  suggest  form;  while  the  suggestion  of 
atmosphere,  perspective,  expression,  and  the 
general  sentiment  and  feeling  of  a  picture  are 
all  within  the  scope  of  etching.  Painter-etching, 


82         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

then,  may  be  called  the  shorthand  of  art.  It  is 
the  concentrated  essence  of  a  picture.  The 
etcher  catches  and  jots  down  the  art  idea  while 
it  is  fresh  and  living  —  and  he  is  wise  if  he  stops 
at  that.  That  is  why  the  "first  state"  of  an 
etching  is  so  often  the  best;  though  it  may  be 
crude  and  faulty,  yet  it  is  a  direct  inspiration. 
But  the  artist  cannot  leave  it  so.  He  takes  up 
his  plate  a  second  time  in  the  spirit  of  a  critic 
and  not  of  a  creator,  and  proceeds  to  "improve" 
it  here  and  there  —  often  with  deplorable  results. 

Art,  being  the  fine  flower  of  civilization,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  these  exceptionally  endowed 
beings — the  artists — should  interest  us.  As  the 
world  is  constituted,  what  is  rare  and  fine  is 
valued,  while  what  is  merely  good,  but  common, 
is  not.  An  iron  nail  is  actually  a  more  useful 
article  than  a  diamond;  but  nails  are  homely  and 
common,  while  diamonds  are  beautiful  and  scarce. 
True,  there  are  imitation  diamonds,  which  glitter 
bravely,  and  there  are  imitation  artists  too;  but 
these  latter  do  not  concern  us  now.  Among 
artists  the  true  etcher  is  the  rarest  of  all.  Nearly 
every  great  etcher  has  excelled  in  painting  as  well; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  very  few  of  the  famous 
painters  could  etch.  For  instance,  the  etchings 
of  Alma-Tadema,  Josef  Israels,  and  Sir  Frederick 
Leighton  are  not  what  we  might  expect  from  these 
masters  of  the  brush  and  palette. 

I  have  not  said  that  etchings  are  rare.  Alas, 
they  are  too  common.  Men  who  are  incapable 
of  it  as  an  art  have  plied  the  making  of  etchings 


LA  SORTIE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  2oJ  by  20f  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Achille  Gilbert  after  the  painting  by  Charles  Jacque.  Jacque 
took  great  interest  in  this  plate  —  retouching  the  etcher's  work  throughout. 
He  was  so  well  pleased  with  the  result  that  he  supplies  the  remarque  with  his 
own  hand. 


UNDER  THE  OLD  OAKS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  17  by  23|  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Paul  Lafond  after  the  painting  by  Charles  Jacque,  who  was 
greatly  pleased  with  such  an  excellent  translation  of  his  picture. 


LE   RETOUR 

Size  of  the  original  print,  18J  by  24  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Frederic  Jacque,  after  the  painting  by  his  father,  Charles 
Jacque.  The  painter  was  so  much  pleased  with  his  son's  rendering  of  it  that 
he  etched  the  beautiful  little  "remarque"  which  appears  on  the  earliest  proofs. 
This  "remarque"  bears  a  date  fifty-eight  years  later  than  the  master's  first 
etching. 


SOME  FAMOUS  ETCHERS  83 

as  a  trade,  and  there  is  a  real  danger  that  the  true 
jewels  may  become  discredited  by  the  quantities 
of  paste  imitations.  A  saying  of  the  late  Paul 
Raj  on  on  this  subject  deserves  to  be  long  remem- 
bered: "It  is  so  easy,  so  very  easy,  to  make  an 
etching;  and  so  hard,  so  very  hard,  to  make  a 
good  one!" 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  average  practi- 
cal man  of  the  wrorld,  the  artists  are  strange  and 
incomprehensible  creatures.  To  him  they  seem 
visionary,  emotional,  and  almost  like  spoiled 
children.  Certainly  their  ways  are  not  his  ways. 
On  the  other  hand,  ask  the  artist  what  he  thinks 
of  the  everyday  commonplace  citizen !  Ask 
Whistler's  disciples  what  they  think  of  common 
humanity!  You  might  as  well  ask  the  high- 
caste  Brahmin  what  he  thinks  of  the  despised 
Pariah!  Thus,  to  the  London  artist,  the  well- 
dressed,  eminently  respectable  outsider  is  a  "Phil- 
istine"; to  the  Paris  artist  he  is  a  "Bourgeois." 
As  for  New  York,  I  think  we  may  give  ourselves 
credit  for  being  more  tolerant  toward  those  whose 
ideals  in  life  differ  from  our  own. 

But,  from  the  "Bourgeois"  and  "Philistine" 
point  of  view,  one  of  the  most  marked  character- 
istics of  the  artist  is  his  frank  and  unqualified 
conviction  of  his  own  transcendent  genius.  Ordi- 
nary outsiders  who  may  be  endowed  with  this 
pleasant  sentiment  have  at  least  the  craft  to  con- 
ceal it,  so  as  to  avoid  ridicule;  but  the  artist  sees 
nothing  to  conceal.  His  conviction  is  as  naive 
as  that  of  a  little  boy  of  my  acquaintance  who, 


84         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

on  returning  from  his  first  day  at  school,  was 
questioned  by  his  mother  as  to  who  was  the  smart- 
est boy  in  the  whole  school.  The  little  fellow 
seemed  surprised  that  such  a  question  should  be 
asked,  but  his  answer  was  straight  to  the  point: 
"Why,  7am!" 

It  may  be  that  this  sentiment  is  inseparable 
from  marked  ability  confined  to  one  direction,  and 
that  it  is  inherent  in  the  artistic  nature.  I  remem- 
ber once  having  scraped  acquaintance  with  a 
professional  baritone  singer  on  board  a  steamer, 
and  after  we  had  talked  of  the  great  singers  in  his 
line  he  summed  up  the  case  in  these  exact  words : 
"Yes,  Santley  once  had  a  good  voice,  and  so  had 
De  Reszke;  but  the  most  wonderful  voice  at  pres- 
ent existing  in  the  world  is  my  own." 

Sometimes  this  egotism  does  not  pass  unre- 
buked,  as  in  the  case  of  the  late  Matthew  Arnold, 
perhaps  the  most  colossal  egotist  of  our  time 
(Whistler  always  excepted).  After  his  return  to 
London  from  his  first  lecturing  tour  in  this  country, 
he  visited  old  Mrs.  Procter,  widow  of  the  poet, 
"Barry  Cornwall,"  and  mother  of  Adelaide  Proc- 
ter, whose  beautiful  poem  of  the  "Lost  Chord" 
is  familiar  to  us  all.  Mrs.  Procter,  who  was 
then  eighty  years  old,  in  giving  Mr.  Arnold  a 
motherly  cup  of  tea,  asked  him,  "And  what  did 
they  say  about  you  in  America?"  "Well,"  said 
the  literary  aristocrat,  "they  said  I  was  con- 
ceited, and  they  said  my  clothes  didn't  fit  me." 
"Well,  now,"  said  the  old  lady,  "I  think  they  were 
mistaken  —  as  to  the  clothes!" 


CARDINAL  MANNING 

Size  of  the  original  print,  20 \  by  13f  inches. 

From  the  dry-point  by  Alphonse  Legros.  This  superb  portrait  is  a  characteristic 
example  of  the  qualities  which  have  won  for  Legros  the  place  in  art  which  he 
holds.  It  is  at  once  noble  and  dignified,  and  full  of  "style." 


f 

En 


SOME  FAMOUS  ETCHERS  85 

Another  marked  characteristic  of  European  art- 
ists is  the  seemingly  undue  and  exaggerated  im- 
portance which  they  attach  to  the  recompenses  of 
the  Paris  Salon.  Even  a  third-class  medal,  and 
much  more  so  a  second,  or  a  first,  will  mark  the 
artist  as  an  aristocrat  among  his  fellows,  while  the 
great  medal  of  honor,  is,  in  his  eyes,  as  extreme 
a  distinction  as  election  to  the  presidency  of  the 
United  States  would  be  in  the  estimation  of  a  patri- 
otic American  citizen.  One  would  suppose  that  an 
artist  could  produce  nothing  good  until  he  had 
had  his  medal  —  and  nothing  bad  afterwards. 

I  need  not  enlarge  upon  the  lavish  generosity 
of  artists  when  they  have  money,  nor  upon  their 
peculiar  ideas  regarding  money  matters  in  general. 
An  extreme  case  was  that  of  Thomas  Worlidge, 
a  London  etcher  of  the  eighteenth  century.  One 
day,  finding  himself  without  a  penny  in  his  purse, 
and  his  larder  being  equally  empty,  he  and  his 
wife  proceeded  to  search  the  pockets  of  all  the 
garments  in  the  house,  and  by  good  fortune  they 
found  a  stray  half -guinea.  Then  they  sallied  out 
to  buy  provisions,  and  passing  through  Covent 
Garden  Market,  Worlidge  stopped  before  a  single 
pint  of  green  peas,  the  very  first  of  the  season, 
which  were  held  at  the  enormous  price  of  ten 
and  sixpence.  In  vain  the  prudent  wife  urged 
that  the  half-guinea  would  keep  them  in  provi- 
sions for  many  days;  Worlidge  paid  it  for  the  pint 
of  peas !  It  all  goes  to  show  that  artists  are  excep- 

/tional  people;  and  if  they  were  not  exceptional 
people  it  is  probable  they  wrould  not  be  artists. 

N 


86    THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Of  the  nine  etchers  whom  we  will  briefly  con- 
sider, the  first  place,  by  right  of  seniority,  belongs 
to  Charles  Jacque.  Jacque  was  one  of  the  earli- 
est, if  not  the  earliest,  pioneer  in  the  great  nine- 
teenth century  revival  of  etching,  and  did  more 
than  any  other  one  man  to  bring  it  about.  A 
famous  painter,  as  well  as  the  creator  of  nearly 
five  hundred  notable  etchings,  he  was  the  comrade 
and  friend  of  such  great  men  as  Millet,  Troyon, 
Corot,  Theodore  Rousseau,  and  Daubigny,  and 
he  outlived  them  all.  His  etched  work  embraces 
a  period  of  sixty-one  years,  and  his  later  plates 
are  considered  his  best,  because  in  them  he  en- 
tirely emancipated  himself  from  the  laborious 
and  painstaking  traditions  of  the  line  engravers. 
In  Jacque's  work  there  is  sweet  rusticity  every- 
where—  the  very  titles  of  his  prints  are  poetic. 
He  draws  domestic  animals  —  including  swine  - 
with  a  loving  fidelity,  and  no  artist  has  ever  drawn 
poultry  so  well,  nor,  I  may  add,  written  about 
them  so  well. 

If  we  were  to  judge  the  man  from  the  character 
of  his  works,  he  should  have  been  one  of  the  most 
angelic  and  dove-like  of  human  creatures;  but 
truth  compels  me  to  say  that  a  more  pugna- 
cious, harsh,  and  domineering  old  gentleman  than 
Charles  Jacque  was  it  would  not  be  easy  to  find. 
In  Paris  he  had  a  valuable  property  in  the  Boule- 
vard de  Clichy,  where  he  resided  and  worked. 
It  is  a  large  and  handsome  house,  built  round  a 
court,  and  accommodating  a  number  of  families. 
He  was  called  the  strictest  landlord  in  Paris,  and 


THE   DEATH  OF  THE  VAGABOND 
Size  of  the  original  print,  21  by  14|  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Alphonse  Legros.  "  The  Death  of  the  Vagabond  is  not  a 
whit  less  suggestive  in  its  contrast  between  the  feebleness  of  the  worn-out 
beggar  now  stretched  out  lonely  on  the  pathside  —  his  head  raised,  gasping, 
and  his  hat  knocked  away  —  and  the  force  and  fury  of  the  storm  that  beats 
over  dead  tree  and  desolate  common.  The  uniting  of  tragic  expression  in 
homely  life,  preserved  in  this  plate,  will  give  it  a  permanent  value  among  the 
great  things  of  art."  —  Frederic  Wedmore. 


THE  TOWN  OF  MAASLINS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8f  by  12|  inches. 


THE   PORT   OF  ANTWERP 

Size  of  the  original  print,  6  by  9J  inches. 
From  the  etchings  by  Johann  Barthold  Jongkind. 

"  Jongkind  is  invaluable  to  the  student  of  etching  as  an  example  of  simple  line-work 
pushed  to  its  utmost  extreme."  —  Philip  Gilbert  Hamerton. 


SOME  FAMOUS  ETCHERS  87 

yet  I  am  told  that  his  property  never  lacked 
good  tenants. 

Some  of  his  rules  for  his  tenants  were  peculiar. 
They  must  have  no  musical  instruments  of  any 
kind;  no  growing  plants;  no  singing  birds;  no 
cats;  no  dogs  —  and  no  children!  I  do  not  take 
an  undue  liberty  in  mentioning  these  things,  for 
this  vigorous  old  man  was  very  proud  of  his  aus- 
terity and  sternness. 

Jacque  also  possessed  a  large  property  at  Pau, 
where  he  carried  on  the  manufacture  of  fine  house- 
hold furniture,  all  of  which  he  designed  himself, 
and  such  pieces  of  it  as  I  have  seen  seem  to  be 
both  beautiful  and  thoroughly  original. 

Felix  Bracquemond  is  a  veritable  master  in 
etching;  but  in  this  country  he  has  not  yet  enjoyed 
the  reputation  which  he  deserves.  I  think  this 
§  is  owing  to  the  fact  that  he  despises  mere  pretti- 
I  ness,  —  and  prettiness  is  the  quality  that  first 
1  attracts  the  general  public  everywhere.  They 
have  a  right  to  their  preferences  —  and  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  it  is  the  general  public  that 
mainly  supports  the  artist.  A  few  of  the  more 
enlightened,  however,  have  always  valued  Bracque- 
mond at  his  true  worth;  and  one  of  the  very  best 
collections  of  his  works  in  existence  was  gradually 
accumulated  by  a  New  York  amateur,  the  late 
S.  P.  Avery,  who  bequeathed  it  to  the  New  York 
Public  Library. 

Bracquemond  was  born  at  Paris  in  1833,  and 
while  quite  young  was  apprenticed  to  a  lithog- 
rapher; but  he  devoted  his  spare  time  to  the  study 


88         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

of  drawing  and  painting.  As  an  etcher  he  was 
entirely  self-taught.  At  the  age  of  sixteen,  he 
borrowed  a  volume  of  an  encyclopaedia  to  learn 
the  technical  details  of  the  etching  process,  and 
then  at  once  proceeded  to  practise  what  he  had 
learned.  How  well  he  succeeded  may  be  judged 
from  the  famous  example  of  his  work,  the  "Birds 
Nailed  on  a  Barn."  In  it  we  see,  ignominiously 
nailed  against  a  barn  door,  a  hawk,  a  crow,  and 
some  other  thieving  birds  (also  a  bat,  which  is 
not  a  bird!).  This  fine  plate,  etched  in  1852,  is 
the  work  of  a  boy  of  nineteen.  Bracquemond 
sold  the  copper  plate  of  this,  along  with  three 
other  capital  plates,  to  Cadart,  the  Paris  pub- 
lisher, for  the  sum  of  —  how  much?  —  twenty -four 
francs!  And  this  money  was  never  paid  to  him. 
He  told  me  this  himself.  And  to-day  a  fine, 
early  proof  of  this  etching  would  sell  in  Paris 
[for  about  thirty  times  the  price  for  which  he  sold 
[  the  original  copper  plate. 

One  very  noticeable  feature  of  Bracquemond's 
work  is  its  apparently  limitless  variety.  Some 
etchers  have  won  a  great  name  for  landscape 
only,  —  others  for  portraits  only;  but  Bracque- 
mond can  seemingly  do  anything  and  everything, 
and  notwithstanding  his  abounding  resources  as 
an  original  designer,  he  is  not  above  producing 
reproductive  plates  of  the  finest  quality  from  the 
paintings  of  Millet,  Meissonier,  and  other  mas- 
ters. His  large  plate  of  King  David,  after  Gus- 
tave  Moreau,  won  for  him  the  medal  of  honor 
at  the  Paris  Salon  of  1884;  and  besides  all  this  he 


THE  COMING  STORM 
Size  of  the  original  print,  9^  by  13^  inches. 


TEAL 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8|  by  llj  inches. 
From  the  original  etchings  by  Felix  Bracquemond. 

The  etchings  of  Bracquemond  are  very  like  the  man  who  made  them.  He  is  a 
great,  strong,  virile  man,  and  his  forceful  personality  is  reflected  in  every  pic- 
ture that  he  has  made. 


a 


_= 
r- 


P5- 
."=* 


.ss 
1-s 


B 


HUJJ 
C 


o  ._ 


4)  >2 

w 


SOME  FAMOUS  ETCHERS  89 

has  done  some  very  remarkable  work  in  the  deco- 
ration of  art-porcelain  for  the  American-French 
firm  of  Haviland  &  Co. 

One  of  his  etchings,  "Sketches  of  Birds  and 
Fishes,"  is  an  outline  for  the  decoration  of  porce- 
lain. The  ink  or  color,  from  a  freshly  printed 
proof,  is  transferred  to  the  unfinished  porcelain, 
which  is  then  finished  in  colors,  and  afterwards 
glazed.  In  this  work  Bracquemond  may  have 
taken  a  hint  from  Turner's  plates  of  the  Liber 
Studiorum:  Turner  having  etched  what  may  be 
called  the  bones  and  sinews  of  the  composition, 
he  then  handed  it  over  to  the  mezzotint  engraver 
to  be  finished. 

His  "Margot  le  Critique"  is  a  satire  on  the  critic, 
whom  Bracquemond  represents  as  a  magpie. 
His  power  in  delineating  birds  —  especially  birds 
in  action  —  is  really  marvelous.  I  should  not 
have  known  how  remarkably  true  to  nature  this 
etching  is,  did  I  not  happen  to  own  a  magpie 
myself.  The  artist's  insight  into  the  very  nature 
-  as  well  as  the  form  —  of  this  meddling,  chatter- 
ing, mischievous,  and  amusing  bird  is  quite  wonder- 
ful. But  Bracquemond 's  sympathetic  insight  is 
not  confined  to  birds.  Pope  tells  us  that  "the 
proper  study  of  mankind  is  man"  -  and  why  may 
not  this  include  the  features  of  a  man,  as  well 
as  his  moral  nature?  Bracquemond's  portrait  of 
Monsieur  Edmond  de  Goncourt  is  one  drawn  and 
etched  from  life,  which  I  think  must  always  rank 
as  a  masterpiece.  The  original  drawing  in  black 
and  white,  of  the  same  size  as  this  etching,  is  in 


90    THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

the  Luxembourg  Gallery  of  Paris,  and  it  well 
deserves  the  honor.  Unlike  Charles  Jacque, 
Bracquemond,  personally,  is  like  his  work.  He 
is  a  great,  strong,  manly  man:  upright  and  down- 
right in  his  character  as  in  his  art. 

To  illustrate  his  physical  powers  I  may  relate 
that  when  recently  a  guest  at  his  table,  I  took 
occasion  to  congratulate  him  on  his  fine,  vigorous 
appetite,  to  which  he  replied:  "Oh,  no;  that  is 
over  with  me  long  ago;  but  I  assure  you  that  up 
to  the  age  of  thirty  years  I  seldom  ate  less  for 
my  dinner  than  either  a  leg  of  mutton,  a  turkey, 
or  a  pair  of  fowls!"  -and  I  can  quite  believe  it. 

In  strong  contrast  with  the  vigorous  and  mascu- 
line Bracquemond  is  the  graceful  and  elegant 
Maxime  Lalanne.  A  glance  at  his  portrait  might 
satisfy  any  one  of  the  innate  delicacy  and  refine- 
ment of  the  man.  Born  at  Bordeaux  in  1827,  he 
died  at  Paris  in  1886.  Not  only  his  etchings, 
but  his  drawings  in  charcoal,  are  in  great  request, 
especially  in  Paris.  In  addition  to  his  own  works, 
so  full  of  refinement  and  grace,  Lalanne  exerted 
vast  influence  through  his  book  on  the  technical 
methods  of  the  etcher.  It  was  published  in  Paris 
in  1866,  just  two  years  before  Mr.  Hamerton 
issued  his  famous  book  —  which  was  not  addressed 
to  the  artists,  but  to  the  public.  Lalanne's 
treatise  still  remains  the  standard  text-book  on 
the  making  of  etchings.  It  was  translated  into 
English  in  1886  by  Mr.  S.  R.  Koehler,  late  of 
the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts. 

Personally   Lalanne   was   greatly   liked   by   all 


A  JETTY  IN  ENGLAND 

Size  of  the  original  print,  11$  by  7|  inches. 

From  the  dry-point  by  Felix  Buhot.  A  very  characteristic  plate.  The  plate 
underwent  many  changes  before  the  artist  was  completely  satisfied  with  it. 
The  scene  is  on  the  pier  at  Folkstone. 


THE  GEESE 
Size  of  the  original  print,  6  by  10  inches. 


THE  COUNTRY  NEIGHBORS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5j  by  7  inches. 

From  the  original  etchings  by  Felix  Buhot.  Buhot  employed  nearly  every  pro- 
cess known  to  the  etcher,  and  combined  them  so  perfectly  that  the  effect  is 
always  harmonious.  In  these  two  etchings  much  of  their  beauty  is  dependent 
on  the  aquatint  which  gives  tone  and  atmosphere.  Sir  Seymour  Haden 
considered  "The  Country  Neighbors"  one  of  the  best  of  modern  etchings. 


SOME  FAMOUS  ETCHERS  91 

who  knew  him.  Monsieur  de  Chagnolles  con- 
cludes his  biography  in  these  words:  "Our  artist 
was  the  center  of  a  brilliant  and  charming  circle. 
He  was  a  delightful  talker,  and  a  bright,  witty 
man.  He  was  greatly  sought  after  and  greatly 
beloved.  In  the  world  of  art  we  may  envy  his 
triumphs,  but  they  made  him  no  enemies;  and  we 
know  of  no  one  who  knew  him  that  was  not  his 
friend." 

While  Lalanne  was  eminently  sober  and  con- 
servative in  his  methods,  confining  himself  within 
the  safe  limits  of  the  frank,  open,  etched  line,  our 
next  subject,  Felix  Buhot,  was  quite  the  contrary. 
To  him  all  methods  were  permissible  so  long  as 
they  gave  him  the  effect  he  desired.  Besides 
etching,  dry  point,  and  aquatint,  the  burin  and 
the  roulette  were  all  impressed  into  his  service. 
His  originality  of  methods  was  not  all  —  for  it 
was  dominated  by  his  originality  as  a  creative 
artist.  No  innovator  can  hope  to  please  every- 
body; but  all  must  admit  that  Buhot  was  never 
commonplace  and  never  dull.  He  may  have  had 
a  wild  and  fantastic  imagination;  but  so  had  such 
men  of  genius  as  Victor  Hugo  and  Edgar  Poe. 

No  one  could  know  Monsieur  Buhot  without 
being  impressed  with  the  thought,  what  a  gentle- 
man he  is!  Thoroughly  well-bred,  highly  edu- 
cated, honorable,  and  kindly,  and  yet  an  ideal 
embodiment  of  the  Gallic  spirit  in  its  brightness 
and  its  unrest,  —  one  in  whom  the  candle  of  life 
burned  with  an  intensity  unknown  to  the  more 
lymphatic  nature  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  He 


92         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

was  also  an  influential  writer  on  subjects  connected 
with  art;  but  though  both  artist  and  author  he 
was  not  a  "Bohemian,"  but  spent  his  time  at 
his  home  in  the  society  of  his  charming  English 
wife. 

I  once  asked  Monsieur  Buhot  his  opinion  as  to 
who  was  the  greatest  French  etcher.  His  answer 
was  "Bracquemond,  decidedly."  Later,  when  I 
went  to  England  I  repeated  this  to  Sir  Seymour 
Haden,  who  rejoined,  "And  I  say  it  is  Felix 
Buhot  himself.  There  is  a  little  plate  of  his, 
representing  two  old  people  trudging  home  in 
the  rain,  that  in  my  opinion  is  painter-etching 
of  the  very  best  sort."  We  will  all  admit  that 
Sir  Seymour  Haden  knows  what  is  good  in  etch- 
ing; indeed,  Monsieur  Dutuit  in  his  sumptuous 
work  on  the  etchings  of  Rembrandt  gives  it  as 
his  opinion  that  Sir  Seymour  is  the  judge  par 
excellence. 

How  well  in  his  etching,  "The  Clock  Tower, 
Westminster,"  Buhot  has  realized  the  multitudi- 
nous jumble  of  a  London  street.  We  have  just 
seen  how  glittering  and  fanciful  art  may  be  and 
yet  be  good  art.  Buhot  is  the  champagne  which 
foams  and  sparkles;  but  all  good  wine  is  not 
champagne. 

From  Buhot  we  turn  to  Alphonse  Legros,  an 
artist  so  serious,  so  profound,  so  sincere,  and  so 
devoid  of  all  that  is  theatrical  and  flippant  that 
we  almost  wonder  he  was  not  born  in  the  earnest 
and  solemn  times  of  Dante,  or  Luther,  or  Savon- 
^  R  arola,  —  instead  of  being  a  modern  Frenchman. 


w  o  « 
•**  .*•  c 


c  -  2 
'<-  c  o* 


tO     B3 

'     ' 


o       ^ 

.2    t; 

35  . 


Jrl 


> 
S  > 


PORTRAIT  OF  SHAKESPEARE    (IN  LIFE  SIZE) 

Size  of  the  original  print,  22  by  17  inches. 

Etched  by  Leopold  Flameng  of  Paris,  from  the  original  painting  by  Richard  Bur- 
bage,  which  is  now  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  London.  Burbage  was 
the  "Leading  Man"  in  Shakespeare's  own  company  of  actors.  He  was  the 
first  to  play  such  parts  as  Hamlet  and  Richard  III.  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds 
admired  Burbage's  painting  so  much  that  he  made  a  copy  of  it. 


SOME  FAMOUS  ETCHERS  93 

Born  at  Dijon  in  1837,  Legros  came  to  Paris  in 
1851,  but  established  himself  in  London  in  1863, 
where  he  has  become  naturalized  as  a  British 
subject,  and  where  for  twenty-two  years  he  filled 
the  dignified  post  of  Slade  Professor  of  Painting 
at  University  College. 

In  a  word,  Legros  is  a  great  etcher  and  a  great 
artist.  But  before  we  proceed  to  further  consider 
his  works,  I  am  tempted  to  quote  an  adverse 
criticism,  which  goes  to  illustrate  the  fact  that 
minds  of  a  certain  cast  are  incapable  of  under- 
standinff_minds  of  larger  or  more  serious  caliber. 
This  criticism  on  Legros  is  from  an  important 
work  in  twelve  volumes,  published  in  Paris  in 
1885-1892.  It  is  The  Engravers  of  the  19th 
Century  by  Henri  Beraldi.  Monsieur  Beraldi 
has  a  method  of  his  own,  which  is  a  great 
innovation  upon  the  style  of  all  former  books 
of  reference.  He  discards  dry  statistics,  such 
as  the  measurement  of  prints  and  minute  rec- 
ords of  their  various  states;  but  he  speaks  his 
own  mind  freely  as  to  the  merits  of  the  artists 
and  of  their  several  works,  and  though  we  cannot 
always  agree  with  him,  yet  his  volumes  are  full 
of  real  and  original  ideas. 

Here,  then,  is  what  Beraldi  writes  of  this  seri- 
ous and  earnest  master:  " Legros  is  invariably 
severe,  austere,  gloomy;  simple  and  rude  in  his 
execution  beyond  degree.  We  feel  an  affectation 
of  archaism,  and  in  modern  subjects  a  sort  of 
premeditated  awkwardness.  Legros  is  a  hypo- 
chondriac, and  his  true  place  is  in  that  gloomy 


94         THE   GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

country  where  the  English  have  taken  to  him  so 
kindly. ' '  Evidently  Beraldi  is  angry  with  Legros 
for  having  become  a  naturalized  Englishman. 
His  French  friends  were  indignant  when  Legros 
became  a  British  subject,  and  when  he  was 
visiting  some  artist  friends  in  Paris  one  of  them 
put  the  question  to  him:  "But  wThat  have  you 
gained  in  renouncing  your  country?"  "D'abord," 
answered  Legros,  "fai  gagne  la  Bataille  de  Water- 
loo!" 

Thus  far  we  have  confined  ourselves  to  original 
painter-etching,  but  reproductive  etching,  which 
copies  —  or  rather  translates  —  the  most  famous 
pictures  of  the  great  painters  into  the  language 
of  black  and  white,  is  an  important  branch  of 
the  etcher's  art.  Civilized  people,  the  world 
over,  will  have  engraved  or  etched  reproductions 
of  famous  pictures  to  decorate  their  walls.  How 
important  it  is  then  that  these  reproductions 
should  be  thoroughly  good.  Line  engraving,  which 
so  long  performed  this  function,  is  dead;  —  killed 
by  the  discovery  of  more  expeditious  methods. 
And  reproductive  etching  remains  master  of  this 
particular  field,  still  more  than  photography.  It 
seems  appropriate,  then,  that  the  most  distin- 
guished pioneer  of  the  contemporary  reproductive 
etchers  should  have  begun  his  career  as  a  line 
engraver,  —  and  it  is  not  without  warrant  that 
this  school  is  called  the  "School  of  Leopold 
Flameng." 

Born  of  French  parents,  at  Brussels,  in  1831, 
Flameng  became  an  expert  line  engraver  under 


ALFRED,   LORD   TENNYSON 

Size  of  the  original  print,  15f  by  12  inches. 

Ktchcd  from  life  by  Paul  Rajon  of  Paris,  in  Tennyson's  seventieth  year.  It  is  a 
very  faithful  likeness  of  the  poet.  Rajon's  biographer,  F.  G.  Stephens,  in 
his  biography  of  Rajon,  writes  of  this  portrait.  "  It  is  simply  one  of  the  finest 
specimens  of  modern  draughtsmanship." 


THE  PHILOSOPHER 

Size  of  the  original  print,  20^  by  16f  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Charles  Waltner,  after  the  painting  by  Rembrandt.  No 
etcher  has  translated  so  well  the  richness  of  Rembrandt's  paintings  into  terms 
of  black  and  white. 


SOME  FAMOUS  ETCHERS  95 

the  instruction  of  Calamatta;  but  from  the  first 
he  seems  to  have  practised  original  etching  also 
-  even  before  he  began  to  etch  the  paintings  of 
other  artists. 

Prosperity  and  fame  make  some  natures  hard 
and  proud  and  exclusive;  but  they  have  had  the 
opposite  effect  on  Leopold  Flameng.  The  world 
has  gone  well  with  him  and  he  is  in  good  humor 
with  all  the  world.  All  the  rewards  that  artists 
covet  have  come  to  him  —  even  to  the  great 
Medal  of  Honor  of  the  Paris  Salon;  but  his  heart 
is  as  light  and  his  laugh  as  ringing  as  if  he  had 
never  struggled  and  conquered. 

He  has  told  me  the  story  of  his  first  arrival  in 
Paris  more  than  fifty  years  ago.  All  his  earthly  be- 
longings were  his  wife,  his  little  son  Francois,  twenty 
francs  in  money,  and  nine  plates  which  he  had 
etched.  Having  learned  the  address  of  a  man  on 
the  Quai  who  bought  such  things  as  etched  plates, 
he  went  direct  to  him  before  seeking  a  lodging 
for  his  little  family,  and  having  shown  his  nine 
plates  he  was  delighted  to  hear  this  enlightened 
publisher  say  that  he  would  take  them  all.  Fla- 
meng says  that  he  never  felt  keener  triumph  than 
at  that  moment.  The  man  put  all  the  copper 
plates  into  a  scale  together;  weighed  them;  did 
some  figuring;  and  announced  that  the  total 
sum  coming  to  the  artist  was  —  ninety  francs ! 
Flameng  was  furious,  but  the  other  blandly 
handed  him  the  scrap  of  paper  on  which  he  had 
calculated  the  amount,  and  explained  that  these 
were  so  many  pounds  and  ounces  of  copper 


96         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

at  so  many  francs  per  pound.  "But  my  work 
on  these  plates  —  does  that  count  for  nothing?'* 
"Oh,  I  never  pay  for  that,"  said  the  man. 
"Surely,"  said  I  to  the  artist,  "you  never  sold 
him  your  new  plates  for  the  price  of  old  copper." 
"What  else  could  I  do?"  he  answered.  "I  had 
not  the  means  to  support  my  wife  and  child  for 
more  than  one  day.  I  did  sell  them  for  ninety 
francs." 

Immediately  afterward  Flameng  got  employ- 
ment on  the  illustrated  papers;  and  when,  later, 
his  friend  on  the  Quai  sent  him  a  commission  for 
some  more  etched  plates,  and  augmented  his  price 
from  ten  to  twenty-five  francs  each,  the  artist 
was  in  a  position  to  decline  the  offer. 

I  may  add  that  the  same  little  boy,  Francois 
Flameng,  has  become  a  painter  of  the  first  rank, 
and  that  his  picture  of  "The  Printer  Aldus,  show- 
ing a  Volume  to  Grolier,"  is  probably  the  most 
precious  possession  of  the  Grolier  Club,  and  occu- 
pies the  place  of  honor  in  their  hall.  Moreover, 
Leopold  Flameng  has  made  a  fine  etching  after 
this  painting  of  his  son's. 

Not  the  least  noteworthy  of  Leopold  Flameng's 
achievements  is  his  success  as  a  teacher  of  etch- 
ing. Of  his  -many  famous  pupils  we  have  time 
to  consider  only  one, — Paul  Raj  on,  an  artist  who 
ranks  as  the  very  best  etcher  of  portraits  —  save 
Rembrandt  only. 

Those  of  us  who  visited  the  fine  collection  of 
Rajon's  works  exhibited  at  the  Grolier  Club  do 
not  need  to  be  told  what  a  master  of  portrait- 


V2   •£        _ 

y    CM       o 


•a    ? 


0)  "O 
j=    C 

* 


. 

-?  § 

£  85 
o  *  '•" 


a  __ 

5  "^  *°  e 

58^  S| 

«••   *2  o  s 

jtf  -S  J=  S 


II 


<«  ^      S  2 


a   •"  4 

»3  J2 

^2 


cr  rt 

x  4=  -J  § 

S  .=  i~ 

x  —I  i 

C    3   r    = 


X   JT£ 


SOME  FAMOUS  ETCHERS  97 

etching  he  was.  And  those  of  us  who  met  him 
during  his  visits  to  New  York  in  1886  and  1887 
found  him  a  charming,  kindly,  lovable  man. 
Before  leaving  New  York  he  made  arrangements 
for  his  return,  but  after  his  arrival  in  France, 
while  attending  the  funeral  of  a  friend,  he  caught 
cold,  and  died  at  his  beautiful  home  near  Paris, 
in  June,  1888. 

To  have  seen  Raj  on  at  his  best  was  to  see  him 
at  that  home  which  he  had  planned  and  built 
at  Auvers,  on  the  river  Oise,  and  where  he  de- 
lighted to  receive  his  friends.  Rajon,  like  Legros, 
was  born  at  Dijon,  in  the  midst  of  the  wine- 
growing region  of  France.  His  father  was  not 
a  successful  man  and  was  continually  moving 
from  place  to  place.  Thus  the  family  drifted  to 
Strasburg  and  afterward  to  Metz,  and  in  these 
two  border  cities  he  became  (as  I  am  told  by 
those  who  speak  it)  fairly  proficient  in  the  Ger- 
man language.  At  Metz  his  first  employment, 
at  the  age  of  fourteen,  was  the  retouching  of 
photographic  negatives,  and  this  humble  work  no 
doubt  contributed  to  develop  his  great  powers 
of  drawing  the  human  face.  Later  he  found  his 
way  to  Paris  and  studied  etching  with  Leopold 
Flameng. 

Rajon  possessed  more  energy  and  enterprise 
than  most  of  his  confreres.  It  takes  a  great  deal 
of  both  to  induce  a  Frenchman  to  learn  English 
-  and  also  to  quit  Paris  if  he  can  possibly  remain 
there.  But  Rajon  learned  English  and  went  to 
London,  where  he  soon  won  fame  and  fortune. 


98         THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

It  is  a  most  difficult  thing  for  any  artist  to  over- 
step the  limit  of  his  own  nationality;  usually  if  a 
French  artist  makes  a  portrait  of  an  Englishman 
or  of  an  American  he  makes  Frenchmen  of  them. 
Not  so  Rajon.  His  superb  portraits  of  Darwin, 
of  John  Stuart  Mill,  and  of  Mrs.  Susanna  Rose 
are  thoroughly  English. 

I  cannot  forget  an  incident  which  took  place 
the  very  last  time  I  ever  saw  him.  It  was  on  a 
Sunday.  Rajon  had  seated  himself  at  the  dinner- 
table,  and  his  two  cats  had  just  mounted  on  his 
shoulders,  as  they  always  did,  when  I  heard  the 
clatter  of  a  pair  of  wooden  shoes  outside,  and 
a  very  old  peasant  woman,  clad  in  homespun, 
appeared  at  the  door.  Rajon  introduced  her  in 
courtly  style  as  his  excellent  friend  Madame 
Panne9aye,  who  did  him  the  honor  and  pleasure 
to  dine  with  him  every  Sunday. 

I  learned  afterward  that  this  poor  woman  had 
owned  a  small  farm  up  to  the  age  of  eighty,  that 
she  then  made  it  over  to  her  two  sons  —  who 
promptly  turned  their  mother  out  of  doors.  The 
good  priest  of  the  parish  had  given  her  the  use 
of  a  little  room,  but  otherwise  she  was  utterly 
dependent  upon  charity.  When  I  saw  her  she 
was  eighty-four  years  old.  I  thought  no  more 
about  the  incident  for  a  year,  but  after  Rajon's 
death,  when  attending  the  sale  of  his  collections 
at  Christie's  auction-rooms  in  London,  I  was 
startled  by  the  vivid  appearance  of  the  same  old 
woman  in  the  form  of  a  portrait  drawn  by  Rajon. 
It  is  a  wonderfully  true  likeness  of  that  poor  old 


THE   ROSE   WINDOW,   NOTRE   DAME,   PARIS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  27  g  by  17  J  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Hedley  Fitton.  This  superb  etching  is  entirely  worthy  of 
its  subject  and  places  the  artist  in  the  very  front  rank  as  an  etcher  of  architec- 
ture. 


INTERIOR  OF  ST.   MARK'S,  VENICE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  25  j  by  16  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Otto  H.  Bacher  of  New  York.  All  who  have  visited  this 
magnificent  old  edifice  will  recognize  the  fidelity  with  which  the  artist  has 
rendered  the  vast  Byzantine  interior,  with  its  great  pillars  of  precious  marble, 
its  uneven,  tesselated  pavements,  and  the  golden  glow  of  its  quaint  mosaics. 


SOME  FAMOUS  ETCHERS  99 

creature  who  had  suffered  all  the  sorrows  of  King 
Lear  himself.  Another  portrait  of  her,  an  original 
lithograph  done  by  her  kind  friend  Robert  J. 
Wickenden,  is  a  very  fine  print. 

Most  of  Rajon's  famous  plates  were  done  from 
paintings  by  other  hands.  He  was  also  a  very 
able  original  draughtsman.  His  portrait  of  Tenny- 
son will  attest  this.  Of  this  portrait,  his  biog- 
rapher, Stephens,  writes,  that  it  is  "simply  one 
of  the  finest  specimens  of  modern  draughtsman- 
ship with  the  etching-needle." 

Having  gone  to  London  with  Rajon,  let  us 
remain  there,  and  conclude  these  brief  sketches 
by  glancing  at  the  two  most  renowned  of  nine- 
teenth century  etchers  Sir  Seymour  Haden,  an 
Englishman,  and  James  McNeill  Whistler,  an 
American  established  in  England. 

Of  Sir  Seymour  Haden  I  need  say  but  little, 
because  he  is  by  far  the  best  known  of  all  the 
nineteenth-century  painter-etchers.  How  this 
busy  and  successful  London  surgeon  took  up  land- 
scape-etching as  a  pastime,  and  how  with  it  he 
has  beaten  the  professional  artists  on  their  own 
ground,  is  a  story  too  well  known  to  be  repeated 
here.  In  Paris  especially,  Sir  Seymour  Haden 
has  the  reputation  of  being  the  greatest  of  all  • 
landscape-etchers,  and  though  the  French  do 
not  love  English  art,  they  awarded  him  at  the 
Paris  Exposition  one  of  the  two  medals  of  honor 
decreed  for  original  etching;  the  other  medal  being 
awarded  to  Charles  Jacque. 

Seymour  Haden  is  now  ninety-three  years  old. 


100       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

He  has  quit  London  and  has  retired  to  the  beau- 
tiful and  historic  old  mansion  of  Woodcote  Manor 
in  Hampshire,  where  several  of  his  American 
friends  have  enjoyed  his  charming  hospitality. 
Personally,  Sir  Seymour  Haden  is  an  exception- 
ally able  man,  who  would  have  risen  to  eminence 
in  almost  any  career.  A  strong,  emphatic, 
aggressive  man,  a  good  fighter,  and  (as  Dr.  John- 
son said  of  somebody)  "a  good  hater"  of  all  that 
he  believes  to  be  wrong;  in  fact,  an  ideal  Tory 
aristocrat  in  all  his  tastes  and  sentiments.  His 
powerful  writings  have  done  more,  I  think,  to 
vindicate  etching  and  to  win  for  it  its  legitimate 
rank  than  any  other  single  influence. 

What  shall  I  say  of  Whistler  in  the  few  moments 
that  are  left  me?  A  whole  course  of  lectures, 
devoted  to  him  alone,  could  not  say  all  that  is 
to  be  said  of  this  great  original  artist  and  most 
remarkable  man.  There  never  has  been  a  man 
like  Whistler  before  and  I  do  not  see  how  there 
ever  can  be  again. 

As  to  his  art,  it  would  be  presumptuous  on 
my  part  to  attempt  to  characterize  it  now.  No 
artist  has  ever  been  so  unmercifully  ridiculed,  and 
yet  I  was  told  by  an  influential  English  painter 
in  Paris  last  summer  that  it  is  now  conceded 
that  Whistler  has  influenced  the  artists  of  Europe 
to  a  greater  degree  than  any  other  man  of  his 
century.  This  is  what  it  is  to  be  a  Master.  The 
artists  learn  from  him  and  adopt  his  methods 
in  spite  of  themselves.  As  to  Whistler,  the  man, 
were  I  to  characterize  him  with  a  Scriptural 


NOTRE   DAME   DES  ANDELYS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  11  bv  7  inches. 
From  the  etching  by  Herman  A.  Webster. 

'Notre  Dame  des  Andelys,  though  not  the  most  instantly  engaging,^  perhaps 
the  most  accomplished  etching  which  the  artist  has  produced."  —  Martin 
Hardie. 


COUR  XORMAXDE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5f  by  1\  inches. 


BUTTER  MARKET,  BRUGES 

Size  of  the  original  print,  6j-  by  5|  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  Herman  A.  Webster.  These  two  plates  are  excellent 
examples  of  the  artist's  broad  and  balanced  disposition  of  light  and 
shade  to  give  not  merely  chiaroscuro,  but  the  suggestion  of  actual 
color. 


SOME  FAMOUS  ETCHERS  101 

quotation,  it  should  be  that  prophecy  concerning 
Ishmael  of  old  -  "  His  hand  shall  be  against 
every  man  and  every  man's  hand  against  him." 
Or  did  I  seek  a  motto  from  Shakespeare  it  should 
be  adapted  from  a  description  of  Cleopatra: 

"Age  cannot  wither  him  nor  custom  stale 
His  infinite  variety." 

His  abnormal  and  unparalleled  egotism,  his 
sovereign  contempt  for  all  other  artists,  the  delight 
which  his  own  works  afforded  him,  his  keen  men- 
tal alertness  and  piercing  wit,  and  his  irreverence 
toward  all  recognized  authority,  are  only  a  few 
features  of  his  unique  personality. 

I  must  refrain  from  relating  many  anecdotes 
about  Whistler;  for  were  I  to  commence  I  should 
not  know  where  to  stop;  but  a  true  picture  of 
the  man  as  drawn  by  his  own  hand  can  be  found 
in  his  published  book,  which  bears  the  quaint 
and  felicitous  title  of  "The  Gentle  Art  of  Making 
Enemies."  Most  of  us  would  much  prefer  to 
study  and  practise  the  still  gentler  art  of  making 
friends,  but  that  is  not  what  Whistler  has  written 
about.  Quite  the  contrary. 

James  Abbott  Whistler  —  who  changed  his 
name  to  James  McNeill  Whistler  —  was  born 
at  Lowell,  Massachusetts,  in  1834.  He  entered 
the  West  Point  Military  Academy  as  a  cadet, 
but  was  dismissed  for  general  refractoriness.  In 
1855  he  drifted  to  Paris,  and  although  he  always 
retained  his  American  citizenship,  he  never  re- 
turned to  his  native  land.  He  died  in  London 


102        THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

in  1903.  When  urged  to  revisit  America  he  used 
to  say  that  he  was  sorry  to  go  on  disappointing 
a  whole  continent,  but  that  he  could  not  really 
go.  He  retained  all  his  intellectual  brightness  to 
the  end. 

About  six  months  before  he  died  he  made  his 
last  journey  to  his  beloved  Paris  and  while  there 
he  visited  a  princess  of  the  Orleans  family.  Dur- 
ing their  conversation  her  Royal  Highness  said  to 
Whistler:  "You  are  acquainted  with  his  Majesty 
King  Edward  of  England?"  "Well,  no,"  said 
Whistler,  "not  personally."  "Well,  that  is 
strange,"  said  the  great  lady,  "I  was  in  London 
a  month  ago,  I  visited  Buckingham  Palace  and 
had  an  audience  with  the  King,  and  he  told  me 
that  he  knew  you  well."  "Oh,"  said  Whistler, 
"that  was  only  his  brag!" 

Among  the  best  painter-etchers  now  living  and 
working  I  may  cite  the  names  of  Storm  van's 
Gravesande,  the  Dutch  nobleman  and  amateur 
etcher;  D.  Y.  Cameron,  the  Scottish  painter; 
Anders  L.  Zorn,  the  great  Swedish  painter;  Paul 
Helleu,  the  Parisian  dry-pointer;  Herman  A. 
Webster,  the  Chicago  artist  now  working  in 
Europe,  and  Thomas  R.  Manley  of  New  York, 
whose  original  landscapes  in  dry-point  are  supple- 
mented by  two  very  fine  ones  which  he  did  from 
drawings  by  our  lamented  American  comedian, 
Joseph  Jefferson. 

On  two  great  American  etchers  separate  chap- 
ters are  printed  in  this  book;  they  are  Whistler 
and  Joseph  Pennell.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pennell  are 


THE  CYPRESS  GROVE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  llf  by  8f  inches. 
From  the  etching  by  D.  Shaw  MacLaughlan. 

"In  Italy  we  love  above  all  his  Tiroli,  his  Certosa,  Pavia,  his  Porte  Vecchio  of  Flor- 
ence, and  that  admirable  plate,  The  Cypress  Grove,  which  is  as  seriously  estab- 
lished, executed,  and  rendered  bit  by  bit  to  the  last  delicate  detail  of  the 
foliage,  as  one  of  those  etchings  of  the  heroic  epoch  of  the  Sixteenth  Century, 
when  the  patience  of  the  engravers  was  a  virtue  equal  to  their  passion  for  the 
finished  work."  —  Octave  Uzanne. 


PONTE  TICINO 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5j  by  7j  inches. 


THE  CERTOSA,  PA  VIA 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7-J  by  8£  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  D.  Shaw  MacLaughlan.  These  two  etchings  of  the  Italian 
series  art-  noteworthy  for  their  excellence  of  drawing  and  clearly  defined  values, 
recalling  in  a  sense  the  mastery  of  Meryon. 


SOME  FAMOUS  ETCHERS  103 

the  joint  authors  of  an  admirable  biography  of 
Whistler.  They  were  loyal  and  close  friends  of 
Whistler's  to  the  end  of  his  stormy  life. 

The  old  Methodists  used  to  say  that  "Heaven 
is  a  prepared  place  for  a  prepared  people."  Simi- 
larly fine  painter-etching  may  be  called  a  pre- 
pared art  for  a  prepared  public.  Twenty  years 
ago  people  used  to  accept  anything  that  could 
be  called  "an  etching";  but,  happily,  all  this  is 
now  changed,  and  to-day  the  incompetent  or 
the  half-competent  etcher  has  no  chance  when 
competing  with  those  who  may  justly  rank  as 
masters  in  this  most  interesting,  but  difficult, 
art. 


ORIGINAL  ETCHINGS  BY  QUEEN 
VICTORIA 

NOW  that  so  many  millions  of  people  through- 
out the  civilized  world  are  bearing  affection- 
ate testimony  to  the  memory  of  Queen  Victoria, 
the  following  little  story  may  be  of  interest  as 
showing  an  unexpected  broad-mindedness  on  the 
part  of  a  monarch  who  had  been  accustomed  to 
flattery  all  her  life. 

A  few  years  ago  I  got  possession  of  a  collection 
of  thirty-four  etchings  done  by  the  Queen's  own 
hand.  I  made  an  exhibition  of  this  collection 
in  my  gallery,  but  knowing  that,  while  interest- 
ing, they  were  in  no  respect  great  works  of  art, 
I  said  as  much  in  the  short  introduction  which  I 
wrote  for  the  catalogue  of  the  exhibition. 

When  in  London,  a  month  later,  I  met  the 
official  keeper  of  the  Queen's  pictures,  Sir  Charles 
Robinson.  After  greeting  me,  he  asked  if  the 
report  could  possibly  be  true  that  I  had  made  a 
public  exhibition  in  New  York  of  her  Majesty's 
etchings.  He  explained  that  very  few  proofs 
had  ever  been  given  away,  and  that  these  had 
only  been  given  to  distinguished  persons,  who 
would  never  dream  of  parting  with  them.  "  Where 
had  I  found  them?  From  whom  had  I  bought 
them?"  My  answer  was:  "Sir  Charles,  I  will 

104 


PORTRAIT  OF  QUEEN  VICTORIA 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8  by  6j  inches. 

Etched  by  Queen  Victoria  and  signed  in  the  plate,  "V.  R."  (Victoria  Regina), 
and  dated  November  18,  1840. 


RETURNING  FROM  THE  DEER  HUNT 

Size  of  the  original  print,  6  by  8J  inches. 
Etched  by  Queen  Victoria,  after  Sir  Edwin  Landseer 


PORTRAIT  OF  HENRY  VIII  AND  OTHER  SKETCHES 

Size  of  the  original  print.  4|-  by  6£  inches. 

fctched  by  Queen  Victoria  at  Windsor  Castle,  after  the  drawing  by  the  Prince 
Consort.     Dated  September  1,  1840. 


ETCHINGS  BY  QUEEN  VICTORIA  105 

tell  you  all  I  can.  The  Queen's  etchings  were 
bought  here  in  England,  and  I  came  by  them 
honestly.  That  is  all  I  will  tell  you."  He  then 
asked  me  to  send  him  a  copy  of  the  catalogue, 
which  I  promised  to  do.  In  leaving  me  he  added, 
"I  shall  lay  the  catalogue  before  her  Majesty." 
I  detained  him  to  say  that  I  was  very  glad  he  had 
mentioned  this,  because  the  introduction  which  I 
had  written  was  not  meant  for  the  eyes  of  roy- 
alty, and  that  it  would  never  do  to  have  the  Queen 
see  such  a  thing.  Sir  Charles  said  that  he  would 
use  his  own  discretion  in  the  matter,  and  so  we 
parted,  I  assuring  him  that  after  reading  it  he 
would  never  show  it  to  her  Majesty.  Here  is 
what  I  had  printed: 

The  name  of  Queen  Victoria  is  about  as  certain  to  remain 
a  great  name  in  history  as  that  of  any  individual  of  the 
nineteenth  century;  but  it  is  not  through  her  work  as  an 
original  etcher  that  she  will  be  immortalized.  And  yet  these 
etchings  of  hers  come  distinctly  nearer  to  being  works  of 
art  then  do  those  of  some  more  pretentious  amateurs. 
They  are  not  very  far  from  being  as  good  as  the  etchings 
of  Thackeray  —  although  that  great  man  of  letters  was  at 
one  time  in  treaty  with  Charles  Dickens  to  illustrate  the 
works  of  the  latter  with  etchings  such  as  those  of  Vanity 
Fair. 

These  etchings  by  Queen  Victoria  and  others  by  her 
husband  are  intimate  souvenirs  of  her  happy  young  wife- 
hood  and  motherhood.  The  dates  run  from  1836  to  1846. 
The  Queen  took  lessons  from  Sir  Edwin  Landseer,  whose 
father,  John  Landseer,  was  a  good  etcher.  These  etchings 
were,  of  course,  never  published;  she  sometimes  gave  proofs 
of  them  to  her  near  friends,  and  these  are  the  only  ones  in 
existence  —  so  that  at  least  this  exhibition  shows  prints 


106   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

of  extreme  rarity.  While  many  of  the  plates  are  both  de- 
signed and  etched  by  the  Queen,  others  are  done  by  her  from 
drawings  by  her  husband.  Prince  Albert  is  represented 
by  etchings  after  his  wife's  drawings  as  well  as  by  some 
which  were  designed  by  himself. 

On  this  occasion  we  cannot  invite  the  public  to  view  a 
collection  of  masterpieces;  but  if  Martha  Washington  had 
etched  some  plates  we  would  all  have  been  curious  to  see 
them.  We  know  that  the  latter  lady  had  some  taste,  be- 
cause a  letter  of  hers  expresses  strong  disapproval  of  the 
practice  of  some  of  the  "  Whiggs"  who  had  the  reprehensible 
habit  of  leaning  their  heads  back  against  the  immaculate 
walls  of  her  parlors! 

A  circumstance  may  illustrate  the  kind  feeling  of  Ameri- 
cans toward  her  Majesty  Queen  Victoria.  It  is  our  custom 
to  speak  of  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  or  the  Queen  of 
Holland,  or  the  King  of  Italy  —  but  when  it  comes  to  the 
mention  of  Victoria  we  simply  call  her  "the  Queen." 

Shortly  afterward  I  was  astonished  to  receive 
the  following  letter  from  Sir  Fleetwood  Edwards, 
one  of  Queen  Victoria's  private  secretaries: 

"DEAR  SIR:  I  am  commanded  by  the  Queen  to  thank 
you  for  a  copy  of  the  catalogue  of  the  exhibition,  made  in 
New  York,  of  her  etchings.  Her  Majesty  has  perused  this 
catalogue  with  much  interest." 


CHARLES  JACQUE 

all  the  rustic  artists  Charles  Jacque  has 
the  simplest  and  purest  feeling,  and  we 
enjoy  a  rusticity  which  is  genuine  and  sincere." 
So  writes  Hamerton  of  this  master,  whose  paint- 
ings, as  .well  as  his  etchings,  are  about  as  well 
known  as  those  of  any  artist  of  the  nineteenth 
century;  and  while  no  general  collection,  either 
of  paintings  or  of  etchings,  by  other  men,  is  too 
good  to  exclude  him  from  an  honored  place,  yet 
his  work  is  so  sane  and  so  simple  that  in  no  case 
is  this  liking  for  it  "an  acquired  taste."  While 
there  is  no  lack  of  artistic  invention  or  of  technical 
mastery  in  his  pictures,  yet  there  is  no  "queer- 
ness"  and  no  mysterious  and  hidden  quality  in 
them,  so  that  one  enjoys  them  from  the  first  and 
enjoys  them  always. 

Charles  Jacque  was  born  in  Paris  in  1813  and 
died  there  in  1893.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  he 
was  apprenticed  to  an  engraver  of  maps,  but 
even  at  that  early  age  he  had  aspirations  toward 
higher  things,  for  it  was  then  that  he  made  his 
first  etching,  and  he  made  a  good  beginning,  for 
his  first  plate  was  a  copy  of  Rembrandt's  "Head 
of  a  Woman,"  which  the  Dutch  master  had  etched 
in  1637.  Jacque  very  soon  tired  of  the  drudgery 
of  map-engraving,  and  in  1830  he  enlisted  in  the 

107 


108       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

French  army.  He  served  for  seven  years,  taking 
part  in  the  siege  of  Antwerp,  and  retiring  with 
the  modest  rank  of  corporal. 

Most  well-constituted  boys  begin  by  making 
pictures  of  soldiers.  Whistler  did  it,  and  so  did 
Jacque.  Monsieur  Jules  Claretie,  in  his  mono- 
graph on  Jacque,  tells  us  that  he  made  a  number 
of  "not  drawings  but  sketches"  of  this  character, 
and  they  are  still  preserved  in  two  little  books  of 
a  convenient  size  to  be  carried  about  in  a  sol- 
dier's pocket.  The  sketches  they  contain  were 
done  between  the  eighteenth  and  the  twenty- 
fourth  year  of  the  artist's  life.  In  his  twenty- 
fifth  year  Jacque  went  to  England,  remaining 
there  for  two  years  and  working  as  an  illustrator 
of  books.  His  work  at  this  period  gave  good 
promise  of  his  future  fame. 

Returning  to  Paris,  his  first  essay  there  was  the 

_  publication  of  a  series  of  military  sketches.     He 

f  sold  the  original  drawings  to  a  publisher  named 

Henriot  at  the  price  of  one  franc  each,  but  as 

Monsieur  Henriot   never  paid   him   for  them  it 

was  not  an  auspicious  beginning;  but  it  may  have 

taught  Jacque  a  lesson,  for  he  died  a  very  rich 

man. 

I  may,  perhaps,  be  allowed  to  repeat  here  a 
part  of  what  I  said  of  him  in  a  lecture  delivered 
before  the  Grolier  Club  shortly  before  his  death: 

"Jacque  was  one  of  the  earliest,  if  not  the 
earliest,  pioneer  in  the  great  nineteenth  century 
revival  of  etching,  and  he  did  more  than  any 
other  one  man  to  bring  it  about.  A  famous 


LA    KKIUiKKIK    HEARXAISK 
Size  of  the  original  print,  18  by  14^  inches. 

From  the  original  etching  by  Charles  Jacque.  This  fine  plate  won  for  M.  Jacque 
the  Medal  of  Honor  at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1889.  In  his  book  Leo  Grav- 
i-ur*  du  A'/A"''  Siecle,  M.  Henri  Beraldi  calls  this  etching  a  "superbe  piece"  — 
and  so  it  is. 


'       2 

II 


I 


i 

c  " 

8  g, 


Ji    3    W 

" 


sir 


was 

<=  S.S 


„ 

fit 

" 


"o  c 


a  a*  fl 

£ 


CHARLES  JACQUE  109 

painter,  as  well  as  the  creator  of  nearly  five  hun- 
dred notable  etchings,  he  was  the  comrade  and 
friend  of  such  great  men  as  Millet,  Troyon,  Corot, 
Theodore  Rousseau,  and  Daubigny,  and  he  out- 
lived them  all.  His  etched  work  embraces  a 
period  of  more  than  sixty  years,  and  his  later 
plates  are  considered  his  best,  because  in  them  he 
entirely  emancipated  himself  from  the  laborious 
and  painstaking  traditions  of  the  line  engravers. 
"In  Jacque's  work  there  is  sweet  rusticity  every- 
where. He  draws  domestic  animals,  including 
swine,  with  a  loving  fidelity,  and  no  artist  has  ever 
sketched  poultry  so  well  —  nor,  I  may  add,  written 
about  them  so  well." 

To  come  back  to  a  later  time,  I  may  say  that  I 
knew  Jacque  well,  and,  indeed,  have  had  many  a 
squabble  with  him,  as  well  as  many  a  pleasant 
and  peaceable  hour.  These  little  quarrels  troubled 
him  not  at  all  (however  they  may  have  troubled 
me),  and  so  there  was  no  difficulty  in  renewing 
our  good  relations  whenever  our  mutual  interests 
rendered  a  reconciliation  desirable. 

Jacque  suffered  more  than  most  artists  through 
the  misdirected  enterprise  of  the  counterfeiters. 
His  etchings  are  so  clever  in  technic  that  they  are 
out  of  the  reach  of  imitators,  but  his  paintings 
have  been  counterfeited  unmercifully.  A  story 
related  to  me  by  his  next-door  neighbor,  Mon- 
sieur Felix  Buhot,  shows  that  Jacque  could  on 
occasion  be  humorous  as  well  as  grim.  A  wealthy 
lady  took  a  sudden  notion  that  it  would  be  the 
correct  thing  for  her  to  collect  works  of  art,  and 


110   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

hearing  of  a  signed  "Charles  Jacque"  which  was 
for  sale  in  a  little  shop  on  the  outer  Boulevard  at 
the  price  of  thirty  francs,  she  went  and  bought 
it.  Having  hung  it  in  her  gallery  she  showed  it 
with  great  satisfaction  to  her  friends.  One  among 
them,  who  had  "eyes  to  see,"  told  her  that  she 
ought  to  show  her  picture  to  the  artist  himself, 
so  as  to  have  him  to  authenticate  it.  Jacque 
consented,  but  when  he  saw  the  frightful  daub 
which  bore  his  name  he  almost  fainted.  Mas- 
tering his  emotion  he  said  to  the  lady,  "Madame, 
what  is  your  own  opinion  of  this  picture?"  "Oh, 
Monsieur  Jacque,"  she  replied,  "it  is  the  pride 
of  my  collection  and  I  consider  it  an  absolute 
masterpiece."  "Well,  then,"  said  the  artist,  "I 
did  paint  it.  Yes,  it  is  my  own  work,  madame!" 
The  lady  went  away  delighted,  and  Jacque  vented 
his  fury  on  the  next  man  he  met! 

At  one  prolific  period  of  his  career  as  an  etcher 
and  lithographer  —  about  the  years  1864  and 
1865  —  Jacque  had  a  hankering  after  minute 
prettiness  of  execution,  and  although  he  never 
etched  a  plate  that  is  so  minutely  finished  in  all 
its  parts  as  is  Rembrandt's  magnificent  portrait 
of  the  "Burgomaster  Six,"  yet  during  the  same 
period  he  produced  some  of  his  boldest  and 
strongest  work. 

Like  some  other  famous  artists,  Jacque  received 
scant  recognition  at  the  Paris  Salon,  so  that  he 
ceased  exhibiting  there  during  the  last,  and  best, 
thirty  years  of  his  life.  Up  to  the  year  1864  he 
had  won  seven  medals  at  the  Salon,  but  they  were 


LES  PETITES  MAISONS  KERCASSIER 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5|  by  8|  inches. 


LE   BUISSON   KERCASSIER 

Size  of  the  original  print,  4f  by  5j  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  Charles  Jacque. 

"Of  all  the  rustic  artists  Charles  Jacque  has  the  simplest  and  purest  feeling.  .  .  . 
His  deep  and  sincere  love  of  simple  country-life  gives  a  great  charm  to  many  of 
his  etchings,  and  is  entirely  conveyed  to  the  spectator."  —  Philip  Gilbert 
Hamerton. 


CHARLES  JACQUE  111 

all  third-class;  while  second  medals,  first  medals, 
and  even  the  great  Medal  of  Honor,  had  been 
awarded  to  artists  who,  in  comparison  to  Jacque, 
were  ephemeral  nobodies.  However,  the  Paris 
Exposition  of  1889  gave  him  a  tardy  vindication 
by  awarding  him  the  Medal  of  Honor  for  his 
etching,  "La  Bergerie  Bearnaise."  This  plate,  the 
work  of  the  artist's  old  age,  is  called  by  Beraldi 
in  his  work,  "The  Engravers  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century,"  une  piece  superbe  —  and  so  it  is. 

Such  a  thing  as  a  complete  collection  of  Jacque's 
etchings  and  lithographs  does  not  exist  in  any  one 
place.  The  master  himself  has  told  me  that  the 
fullest  collection  existing  is  that  of  Mr.  Samuel 
P.  Avery,  who  bequeathed  it  to  the  New  York 
Public  Library. 


JEAN-FRANgOIS   MILLET 

SKETCH    OF    HIS    LIFE 

JEAN-FRANgOIS  MILLET  was  born  in  the 
little  village  of  Gruchy,  on  the  Norman 
coast,  on  the  4th  of  October,  1814.  There  for 
generations  his  family  had  cultivated  their  small 
piece  of  ground,  and  there  the  future  artist  was 
brought  up  in  the  laborious,  thrift  of  the  poorer 
French  peasantry. 

As  his  mother  cpuld  not  be  spared  from  her 
daily  labor  in  the  fields,  the  care  of  the  child 
fell  to  the  grandmother.  Of  this  devout  and 
excellent  woman  Millet  always  cherished  the 
most  affectionate  remembrance,  and  to  her  train- 
ing he  was  chiefly  indebted  for  those  strong 
principles  of  right  and  morality  which  he  always 
maintained. 

In  the  intervals  of  his  labor  in  the  fields,  the 
boy  received  some  instruction  from  the  Cure  of 
Greville.  This  worthy  man  encouraged  him  to 
study  Latin,  telling  him  that  through  it  he  could 
become  a  doctor  or  a  priest.  Millet  did  learn 
Latin,  but  declared  that  he  would  be  neither 
priest  nor  doctor,  but  would  help  his  father  on 
the  farm. 

The  elder  Millet  appears  to  have  been  an  en- 
lightened man.  From  the  first  he  encouraged 
his  son's  propensity  to  make  sketches  of  the  scenes 

112 


JEAN-FRANgOIS  MILLET  113 

and  persons  about  him;  and  when,  at  the  age  of 
eighteen,  Millet  proposed  to  adopt  the  career 
of  an  artist,  the  father  replied:  "My  poor  Fran- 
gois,  I  cannot  well  spare  you  while  your  brothers 
are  so  young;  but  we  will  go  together  to  Cher- 
bourg and  show  some  of  your  drawings  to  an 
artist  there,  and  if  he  considers  that  you  have 
real  talent,  I  will  consent." 

At  Cherbourg  they  showed  two  drawings  to 
Mouchel,  who  was  a  pupil  of  the  school  of  David. 
This  artist  at  first  refused  to  believe  that  the 
drawings  which  were  shown  him  could  be  the 
unaided  work  of  a  peasant-boy;  and  when  at 
last  convinced  that  they  Were,  he  declared  that 
the  boy  had  in  him  the  making  of  a  great  artist. 

Millet  then  commenced  his  art  studies  at 
Cherbourg,  and  while  there  he  also  read  with 
avidity  all  the  books  he  could  procure.  Be- 
sides the  French  authors  he  was  passionately 
fond  of  Shakespeare,  Walter  Scott,  Goethe,  and 
the  American,  Fenimore  Cooper.  He  removed 
to  Paris  at  the  age  of  twenty-three,  and  although 
he  was  then  a  simple  peasant,  he  was  far  from 
being  an  ignorant  one.  His  letters  show  that 
Millet  was  a  man  of  intellect  and  refinement,  and 
in  after  life  it  was  his  habit  to  read  his  Bible  and 
his  Virgil  in  the  Latin. 

The  artist  has  left  a  record  of  his  first  experi- 
ences in  the  great  city.  His  main  desire  was 
to  visit  the  pictures  in  the  Louvre,  but  he  was 
too  shy  to  inquire  his  way,  and  wandered  about 
until  he  came  upon  the  building  by  chance. 


114       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

He  was  chiefly  impressed  by  the  works  of 
Mantegna,  Michael  Angelo,  and  Nicolas  Pous- 
sin;  but  the  artificial  prettiness  of  Watteau  and 
Boucher  gave  him  no  pleasure,  and  he  had  a 
feeling  that  the  performing  puppets  in  their 
pictures  should  be  shut  up  in  a  box  after  their 
masquerade  was  over. 

He  became  a  pupil  of  Paul  Delaroche,  but 
could  never  adopt  the  academic  formality  of 
that  popular  painter. 

Although  his  resources  in  Paris  were  very 
slender,  Millet  contrived  to  make  several  visits 
to  the  beloved  homestead  in  Normandy.  Dur- 
ing one  of  these  visits  in  1841,  he  painted  sev- 
eral portraits  (some  sign-boards  also),  and  among 
these  portraits  that  of  the  young  girl  of  Cher- 
bourg whom  he  married. 

Millet  was  then  a  large,  strong,  handsome 
young  man  of  twenty-seven.  His  first  wife 
died  within  three  years,  and  in  1845  he  mar- 
ried the  woman  who  became  the  mother  of  his 
large  family,  and  who  remained  —  until  his  death, 
thirty  years  afterward  —  his  devoted  companion 
in  his  few  joys  and  many  sorrows. 

Thus  far  fortune  had,  in  a  moderate  way, 
smiled  on  the  artist,  but  now  his  troubles  began 
to  come  thick  and  fast;  and  they  only  ended 
with  his  life.  Returning  to  Paris  in  1845,  Millet 
and  his  wife  endured  years  of  dire  privation. 
In  the  winter  of  1848  a  friend  found  them  in  a 
room  without  fire,  and  learned  that  for  two  days 
they  had  had  nothing  to  eat.  Several  pictures 


SHEPHERDESS  KNITTING 

Size  of  the  original  print,  12£  by  9|  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  J.  F.  Millet. 

"This  beautiful  plate  was  intended  for  publication  by  the  Societe  des  Aquafor- 
tiates  (Cadart),  but  the  publisher  having  asked  Millet  to  withdraw  the  plate,  the 
artist  ceased  to  be  a  member  of  the  Societe  (1862)."  —  Alfred  Lebrun. 


THE  WOOI^CARDER 

Size  of  the  original  print,  lOf  by  6|  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  J.  F.  Millet. 

'This  admirable  print  narrowly  escaped  suppression.  Millet  considered  it  over- 
bitten  and  did  not  wish  to  publish  it.  By  inadvertence  he  left  the  plate  an 
entire  night  in  the  acid.  —  Alfred  Lebrun. 

'The  essence  of  the  painter's  feeling  is  here,  in  these  few  strokes  of  black  and 
white;  and  the  essence  of  his  feeling  is  more  valuable  than  even  the  splendid 
glow  of  color  by  means  of  which  he  enhanced,  on  canvas,  its  effect."  —  Mrs. 
Schuyler  van  Rennselaer. 


JEAN-FRANgOIS  MILLET  115 

were  refused  admission  at  the  Salon,  and  those  that 
were  admitted  found  few  admirers  and  fewer  pur- 
chasers. It  was  the  oft-repeated  tale  of  so  many 
men  of  great  original  genius  (those  innovators 
and  prophets  whose  tombs  are  devoutly  built 
by  posterity):  first,  total  neglect;  next,  encounter- 
ing opposition  and  detraction;  after  that,  occa- 
sioning violent  controversies;  still  later,  seriously 
considered,  and  finally  taking  their  place  among 
the  immortals.  When  at  last  renown  came  to 
Millet,  it  came  too  late.  The  strong,  vigorous 
man  was  worn  out  by  long  years  of  neglect,  pov- 
erty, and  disappointment;  no  strength  remained 
to  gather  the  harvest  —  and  so  he  died. 

Surely  commonplace  mediocrity  leads  a  hap- 
pier life  than  inspired  genius!  And  may  there 
not  be  among  us  some  unknown  Millets  living 
and  suffering  to-day? 

Millet  never  took  kindly  to  Paris.  The  arti- 
ficial glare  and  glitter  were  repugnant  to  his 
simple,  serious  nature,  and  he  was  fain  to  escape 
in  1849  to  the  little  village  of  Barbizon,  on  the 
skirts  of  the  forest  of  Fontainebleau.  Here  he 
rented  the  cottage  where  he  lived  for  twenty- 
seven  years,  and  where  he  died  on  the  20th  of 
January,  1875,  in  the  sixty-first  year  of  his  age. 

After  the  master's  death  his  widow  and  chil- 
dren continued  to  occupy  the  now  famous  little 
cottage  at  Barbizon,  and  in  1886  some  of  his  ad- 
mirers purchased  this  cottage  and  made  Madame 
Millet  its  owner.  It  was  there  that  she  resided 
to  the  end  of  her  life. 


116       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Millet's  development  in  art  was  steady  and 
gradual.  It  was  only  after  he  had  definitely 
devoted  himself  at  Barbizon  to  the  delineation 
of  peasant  life  that  his  masterpieces  in  painting 
and  etching  were  produced. 

Although  he  was  wretchedly  poor  during  this 
period,  yet  a  few  of  his  contemporaries  recog- 
nized him  even  then  as  a  great  artist.  Among 
these  were  Theodore  Rousseau,  Charles  Jacque, 
and  the  American  painter  William  Hunt. 

It  is  well  known  that  Alfred  Sensier  filled  a 
role,  with  regard  to  Millet,  not  unlike  that  which 
was  filled  by  James  Boswell  a  hundred  years 
before  with  sturdy  old  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson. 
Sensier,  as  well  as  Boswell,  recognized  the  great- 
ness of  his  hero,  and  sought  his  society  on  all 
occasions;  and  each  has  left  an  admirable  biog- 
raphy of  the  man  of  his  admiration.  No  one 
could  read  Sensier's  Life  of  Millet  without  being 
filled  with  esteem  as  well  as  pity  for  the  true- 
hearted  man  it  portrays. 

In  etching,  as  in  painting,  Millet  was  thor- 
oughly original  and  entirely  himself.  A  con- 
summate draughtsman,  he  despised  all  tricks  of 
mere  prettiness  and  "finish,"  and  having  given 
the  essentials  of  a  composition,  he  wisely  stopped 
and  carried  it  no  farther. 

There  is  little  that  is  distinctively  French  in 
his  work;  no  coquetry,  no  superficial  adroit- 
ness or  vivacity;  but  in  their  place  are  direct 
and  serious  honesty  combined  with  transcen- 
dent ability.  Some  extracts  from  his  letters  to 


- 


«*-  .— 


1UJ 


3       5 

4j   4^    O 


JEAN-FRANCOIS  MILLET  117 

an  intimate  friend  will  show  how  this  poet  of 
the  poor  saw  his  vocation:  "To  paint  well  and 
naturally,  I  think  an  artist  should  avoid  the 
theater."  "The  human  side  of  art  is  what 
touches  me  most;  the  gay  side  never  shows  itself 
to  me."  And  of  the  weary  and  hopeless  toil  of 
the  poor,  he  writes:  "To  me  this  is  true  human- 
ity and  great  poetry." 

Millet's  etched  work  was  produced  at  a  time 
when  the  art  had  not  as  yet  become  popular, 
and  hence  some  of  his  finest  plates  have  become 
very  scarce;  indeed,  several  prints,  or  states  of 
prints,  are  unique. 

His  paintings  being  so  well  known,  either  through 
the  originals  themselves  or  through  etchings 
(done  by  other  hands)  and  by  photographs  taken 
from  them,  our  present  concern  is  with  the  orig- 
inal etchings  which  the  master  executed  with 
his  own  hand.  Of  these  there  existed  twenty-one 
plates,  and  they  include  some  eight  which  are 
mere  studies  made  by  Millet  of  the  etching  pro- 
cess, so  that  his  finished  etched  plates  numbered 
only  thirteen. 

Nearly  every  one  of  these  thirteen  etchings 
is  of  special  interest  because  it  is  the  original 
finished  study  which  the  master  afterwards  elab- 
orated into  some  famous  painting.  There  is  a 
saying  among  the  French  artists  to  the  effect 
that  a  man  paints  every  day,  no  matter  how  he 
feels;  but  that  when  he  etches  it  is  only  on  his 
good  days. 

Of  Millet's  thirteen  finished  etchings  the  first 


118   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

place  is  generally  accorded  to  his  plate  of  the 
"Woman  Carding  Wool."  We  may  allow  this 
to  be  "the  chief  among  equals";  these  equals 
being  the  "Two  Men  Digging,"  the  "Women 
Gleaning,"  the  "Man  with  a  Wheelbarrow,"  the 
"Woman  Churning,"  the  "Shepherdess  Knit- 
ting," and  the  "Peasants  Going  to  Work." 

There  is  perhaps  no  other  great  etcher  whose 
works  gain  or  lose  so  much  according  to  the 
good  or  the  bad  quality  of  each  individual  proof. 
Millet  was  not  himself  an  expert  printer;  and 
judging  by  the  very  poor  quality  of  some  proofs 
which  were  unquestionably  printed  for  himself, 
he  did  not  always  seem  to  know  whether  a  proof 
was  good,  middling,  or  bad.  Probably  the  true 
explanation  is  that  Millet  could  seldom  afford 
to  pay  for  the  services  of  an  expert  printer,  and 
an  incompetent  one  is  likely  to  ruin  the  effect 
of  the  finest  plate  in  the  world;  for  a  badly  printed 
proof  is  no  better  than  a  libel  on  the  artist.  If 
one  man  pays  five  times  more  for  a  suit  of  clothes 
than  another  man  can  pay,  the  former  is  very  apt 
to  be  the  better  dressed  of  the  two.  The  dull, 
heavy,  and  lifeless  impressions  of  Millet's  plates 
which  sometimes  shock  the  connoisseur  do  not 
exist  through  any  fault  in  the  plates  themselves; 
for  when  the  plates  were  printed  by  such  a  master 
craftsman  as  Auguste  Delatre  the  result  is  har- 
monious, luminous,  and  altogether  beautiful.  He 
generally  printed  Millet's  proofs  on  thin  old 
Japanese  paper  of  a  golden  tone,  or  else  on  fine 
old  Dutch  paper.  These  latter,  equally  fine,  but 


PEASANTS  GOING  TO  WORK 

Size  of  the  original  print,  15j  by  12|  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  J.  F.  Millet.  This  subject  was  a  favorite  one  with  Millet. 
He  repeated  it  with  slight  variations,  in  many  mediums,  but  in  none  of  them 
with  greater  force  or  more  directness  than  in  this  etching. 


X 


>•       ,  •  C 
^  —  fe  £ 

O  -C  b'^ 

^  o-0^^ 

Uflj 

"S'S  S  g 
s  «  apg 

0)    0) 

j— •  <u 

4->      ,,      CJ 

a  SJ 

I  a-a 

£ 


cioj 

9 


JEAN-FRANCOIS  MILLET  119 

different  in  effect,  were  often  printed  with  a  brown- 
ish ink.  Delatre  was  by  no  means  the  only  expert 
printer  who  understood  how  to  get  out  of  Millet's 
plates  all  that  the  master  had  put  into  them,  and 
this  fact  makes  it  the  more  astonishing  that  Millet 
could  have  tolerated  a  considerable  number  of  bad 
impressions. 

It  is,  then,  through  fine  proofs  only  that  Millet's 
etchings  should  be  judged,  and  they  seem  already 
to  have  taken  rank  among  the  permanent  master- 
pieces of  the  art  —  beginning  with  the  prints  of 
Diirer  and  Rembrandt  and  coming  down  to  those 
of  Seymour  Haden  and  Whistler. 

Besides  his  etchings  and  lithographs,  Millet 
also  tried  his  hand  at  wood-engraving,  and  with 
eminent  success.  He  had  the  intelligence  to 
see  that  the  laborious  and  over-elaborate  wood- 
cuts of  his  day  were  no  more  than  feeble  imi- 
tations of  engravings  on  copper  or  steel,  and  so 
he  brought  wood-engraving  back  to  the  sim- 
plicity which  had  been  so  triumphantly  prac- 
tised by  Albrecht  Diirer  three  centuries  before. 
Diirer's  engravings  on  copper  still  remain  models 
of  minute  elaboration,  but  when  he  made  a  wood- 
cut he  changed  his  method  entirely.  The  effect 
in  his  wood-cuts  is  mainly  achieved  through  the 
bold  and  even  coarse  outlines.  Millet  has  done 
the  same  —  and  with  admirable  results.  He  sel- 
dom actually  engraved  the  wood  blocks  upon 
which  he  had  drawn  designs  (any  more  than  Dtirer 
did),  but,  having  made  some  studies  in  the  art,  he 
had  his  designs  engraved  by  one  or  other  of  his 


120       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

two  brothers,  Pierre  or  Jean-Baptiste.  The  large 
wood-cut  of  the  "Shepherdess  Seated,"  engraved 
by  J.  B.  Millet,  and  the  "Digger  Leaning  on  his 
Spade"  and  the  "Woman  Filling  Water  Cans," 
engraved  by  Pierre  Millet,  are  equally  full  of  the 
spirit  of  their  great  brother. 

Fashions  in  art  will  change.  Some  living  artists 
who  have  acquired  great  fame  have  perhaps 
already  "outlived  their  immortality,"  while  others 
to-day  unheralded  will  some  day  be  famous. 
But  in  the  roll  of  honor  of  the  nineteenth  century 
there  is  no  name  more  certain  to  go  down  to  pos- 
terity as  that  of  a  master  in  art  than  the  name  of 
Jean-Frangois  Millet. 

MILLET    AS   AN   ETCHER 

The  distinguished  American  painter  and  etcher, 
Thomas  Moran,  once  made  to  me  the  following 
pregnant  comment  on  the  works  of  Jean-Frangois 
Millet:  "I  admire  his  etchings  still  more  than  I 
admire  his  paintings.  When  Millet  was  painting 
he  was  thinking  of  his  color,  but  when  he  was 
etching  he  was  thinking  of  his  drawing." 

Mrs.  Schuyler  van  Rensselaer,  one  of  the  most 
sympathetic  critics  of  Millet's  etchings,  writes: 
"A  man  who  had  given  his  whole  life  to  painting 
and  not  to  etching  could  not  have  been  more  truly 
and  markedly  a  born  etcher  than  Millet  showed 
himself  to  be  —  few  though  were  the  plates  and 
many  though  were  the  canvases  he  worked  upon. 
To  depend  upon  lines,  not  tones,  for  expression; 


THE   SOWER 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7f  by  6|  inches. 

From  the  original  lithograph  by  J.  F.  Millet.  This  lithograph,  executed  in  1851, 
was  done  for  L' Artiste,  —  but  that  journal  never  published  it.  This  was  a 
favorite  subject  with  Millet,  and  one  which  he  repeated,  with  variations,  many 
times,  but  never  more  nobly  than  in  this  unpretentious  lithograph. 


1 

3 

4> 

H     -5 

^        d 
U    »  o 

§1* 

8.s,s 
6«rs 

Q  •*  jl  . 
I  111 

w  ^^^ 

«  *tf 

Si>g- 

Q  'Sc  c« 
W  'C  ^  i 

w  °  2  § 
a  ^^^ 

fc  **  *r   « 

§"§1 

S  8"S1 

K  §-s 


- 
ffi 

H 


d)     t» 

•5^ 
s£ 


V 


K^^s> 
5    Xxrrl 


;  J 

mj^M 


w  irjp 

PH    nlooE  -° 
C/2    t^^  bD 

C/3    -M-0-? 
ffi   -||    I 

•&'«  -^ 

g-hi 

Illi 

Sutl 


JEAN-FRANgOIS  MILLET  121 

to  make  every  line  'tell,'  and  to  use  no  more  lines 
than  are  absolutely  needed  to  tell  exactly  what 
he  wants  to  say;  to  speak  strongly,  concisely,  and 
to  the  point;  to  tell  us  much  while  saying  little; 
to  suggest  rather  than  to  elaborate,  but  to  sug- 
gest in  such  a  way  that  the  meaning  shall  be  very 
clear  and  individual  and  impressive  —  these  are 
the  things  the  true  etcher  tries  to  do.  And  these 
are  the  things  that  Millet  did  with  a  more  mag- 
nificent power  than  any  man,  perhaps,  since  Rem- 
brandt. Other  modern  etchings  have  more  charm 
than  his  —  none  have  quite  so  much  feeling. 
Others  show  more  grace  and  delicacy  of  touch 
—  none  show  more  force  or  certainty,  and  none 
a  more  artistic  *  economy  of  means." 

The  king  of  all  etchers,  Rembrandt,  seldom  or 
never  etched  a  design  which  he  had  painted,  or 
painted  one  which  he  had  etched;  but  Millet's 
method  was  the  opposite.  In  several  cases  an 
etching  by  him  was  the  earliest  expression 
of  his  subject,  but  he  often  repeated  the  same 
artistic  conception  in  a  painting  in  oils,  a  water- 
color  drawing,  a  pastel  —  or,  on  occasion,  all 
three.  Among  his  few  lithographs  is  the  charac- 
teristic and  beautiful  "Man  Sowing  Grain,"  and 
his  finished  wood-cuts  —  although  actually  en- 
graved by  one  or  other  of  his  two  brothers  — 
are  in  the  best  spirit  of  wood-engraving  as  it  was 
done  nearly  four  centuries  earlier  by  Albrecht 
Diirer. 

What  may  be  called  the  personal  history  of 
Millet's  etched  plates  is  peculiarly  interesting. 


122       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

The  spirit  of  painter-etching  was  at  its  best 
about  the  year  1860  —  "there  or  thereabouts." 
Meryon,  Whistler,  Seymour  Haden,  and  Millet 
were,  at  that  time,  producing  their  masterpieces. 
Millet  could  sell  very  few  proofs,  and  so  he  printed 
very  few  —  although  his  plates  were  so  strongly 
etched  that  they  could  have  yielded  a  larger 
edition.  When  the  master  died,  the  French  law 
required  that  the  copper  plates  must  be  seques- 
tered until  the  coming  of  age  of  one  of  the  heirs 
who  was  then  a  minor.  So  the  plates  were  en- 
closed in  a  strong  box  which  was  then  officially 
sealed  by  a  legal  functionary.  When  the  time 
arrived  that  the  Millet  family  could  enter  into 
possession  of  them,  I  myself  was  present  when 
the  seals  were  broken  and  the  plates  taken  out. 
I  saw  at  once,  by  the  unpolished  surface  of  the 
coppers,  that  no  proofs  had  been  printed  from  them 
for  many  years,  and  also  that  they  were  entirely 
unworn  from  use. 

It  was  then  arranged  that  I  was  to  take  the 
plates  to  London  and  entrust  them  to  Mr.  Fred- 
erick Goulding,  who  was  the  ablest  plate-printer 
of  his  day.  He  knew  how  to  get  out  of  Millet's 
plates  just  what  the  master  had  put  into  them, 
and  Goulding  printed,  with  his  own  hands,  a 
small  edition  from  each  of  the  plates.  These  plates 
were  then  destroyed.  The  destroyed  copper-plates 
became  the  property  of  an  eminent  American 
collector  who  is  an  enthusiast  in  his  love  for 
Millet's  work. 

These  proofs  printed  by  Goulding  are  unques- 


JEAN-FRANCOIS  MILLET  123 

tionably  the  finest  that  Millet's  plates  ever 
yielded — although  they  are  the  latest.  A  similar 
anomaly  happened  in  the  case  of  the  sixteen 
plates  of  Whistler's  superb  "Thames  Set."  In 
their  case  also  the  latest  printing  —  as  Whistler 
admitted  —  was  much  the  best,  and  all  art-lovers 
have  to  thank  Goulding  for  this  result. 


A  NOTABLE  MASTERPIECE  BY   MILLET 

Reprinted,  by  permission,  from  the  ''Century 
Magazine" 

IT  is  very  well  known  that  although  the  pictures 
of  Jean-Frangois  Millet  were  sadly  neglected 
during  the  artist's  lifetime,  yet  very  shortly  after 
his  death  not  only  were  his  finished  paintings, 
aquarelles,  drawings,  and  etchings  eagerly  col- 
lected, classified,  and  studied,  but  even  the  slight- 
est scrap  of  a  sketch  from  his  hand  was  dignified 
into  a  "lot"  and  eagerly  competed  for  at  the 
auction  sales  of  the  Hotel  Drouot  in  Paris;  and 
it  may  be  regarded  as  an  extraordinary  thing 
that  his  "Wood-Sawyers"  —  a  finished  painting 
which  may  rank  among  his  very  finest  —  should 
with  propriety  now  be  presented  in  a  monthly 
magazine  as  a  sort  of  novelty. 

Why  is  not  "The  Wood-Sawyers"  as  well 
known  as  the  universally  known  "Angelus"? 
Both  the  pictures  are  the  product  of  about  the 
same  period,  are  of  nearly  similar  size  and  impor- 
tance; and  on  one  memorable  though  little-known 
occasion,  when  these  two  masterpieces  were  placed 
side  by  side  and  offered  for  sale  to  an  enlightened 
and  wealthy  collector,  he  selected  "The  Wood- 
Sawyers"  and  rejected  "The  Angelus."  It  was 
not  long  after  the  time  when  Millet  was  very 

124 


A  NOTABLE  MASTERPIECE  BY  MILLET    125 

glad  to  sell  the  latter  picture  for  two  thousand 
francs  (but  long  before  M.  Chauchard  of  Paris 
paid  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  francs  for 
it)  that  it  drifted  into  the  possession  of  M.  Des- 
champs,  a  Frenchman  of  great  taste  and  knowl- 
edge of  pictures,  who  was  at  that  time  doing 
business  in  London.  One  of  his  clients  in  Eng- 
land was  the  eminent  Greek  merchant  Constan- 
tine  lonides,  who  long  resided  at  Brighton,  where 
he  recently  died  after  having  made  a  collection 
of  pictures  of  unsurpassed  quality.  M.  Des- 
champs,  knowing  that  lonides  had  long  desired 
to  procure  an  example  of  Millet  which  would 
satisfy  his  exacting  requirements,  sent  word  to 
the  great  merchant  that  he  could  offer  him  not 
only  one  but  two  such  pictures.  It  is  known 
that  lonides  was  himself  a  capital  judge,  yet  he 
seldom  would  venture  to  buy  a  picture  unless 
his  own  opinion  of  it  could  be  indorsed  by  that 
of  still  another  eminent  foreigner  resident  in 
England.  This  was  Alphonse  Legros,  painter, 
sculptor,  etcher,  and  for  twenty  years  Slade  Pro- 
fessor of  Art  at  University  College,  London.  (It 
will  be  remembered  that  John  Ruskin  filled  the 
corresponding  Slade  professorship  at  Oxford.) 

This  was  the  man,  then,  whom  Constantine 
lonides  took  with  him  when  he  went  to  the  house 
of  Deschamps  to  purchase  a  picture  by  Millet. 
The  two  paintings  were  placed  side  by  side  before 
the  visitors.  "The  Wood-Sawyers"  was  slightly 
the  larger  canvas,  measuring  about  thirty-six 
inches  in  width,  and  its  price  was  five  hundred 


126       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

pounds  sterling,  while  the  price  of  "The  Angelus" 
was  eight  hundred  pounds.  lonides,  desiring  to 
have  the  better  picture,  was  inclined  to  take  the 
dearer  one,  but  declared  that  he  would  be  guided 
in  his  choice  by  Legros.  Thus  appealed  to,  Legros 
made  answer:  "If  you  want  the  really  great  pic- 
ture of  these  two,  take  'The  Wood-Sawyers'"; 
and  thus  the  choice  was  made.  The  picture  has 
since  been  cloistered  in  the  mansion  at  Brighton, 
while  its  companion  was  destined  to  cross  the 
Atlantic  twice  before  finding  its  present  resting- 
place  in  Paris. 

The  seclusion  which  has  been  the  fate  of  the 
picture  under  consideration  seems,  in  a  measure, 
also  to  have  followed  the  single  reproduction  of 
it  which  has  hitherto  been  made.  This  repro- 
duction is  the  wonderfully  able  etching  done  from 
Millet's  painting  by  the  Scottish  artist  William 
Hole. 

It  is  well  within  the  province  of  the  best  repro- 
ductive etching  or  engraving  to  suggest  the  color- 
scheme  of  the  painting  reproduced,  and  sometimes 
even  to  improve  upon  it;  yet  it  is  beyond  the  scope 
of  a  print  in  monochrome  to  record  this  or  that 
detail  of  color  which  exists  in  the  picture  copied. 
Thus  by  looking  at  our  illustration  it  is  easy  to 
see  that  the  woodman  whose  back  is  turned  towards 
us  is  the  dominant  figure  in  the  composition, 
but  not  so  easy  to  realize  that,  in  Millet's  painting, 
this  woodman's  trousers  are  the  dominant  color- 
note  of  the  whole  picture.  They  are  of  that 
strong  blue  velveteen  which  is  so  much  worn  by 


I 
I 


. 

es  - 
a  -S 


a  s 


THE  ANGELUS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  21  by  25  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Charles  Waltner,  after  the  painting  by  J.  F.  Millet. 

"  It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  the  deep  sense  of  rustic  devotion  in  this  most  impressive  work.  .  . 
The  etcher  has  entered  quite  heartily  into  the  sincere  and  earnest  spirit  of  the  painter,  and 
has  etched  the  picture  with  so  much  good  taste  and  feeling  that  the  effect  on  the  heart  is 
quite  that  of  the  original  painting  itself."  —  Philip  Gilbert  Hamerton. 


French  working-men.  This  cheap  cotton  stuff 
is  really  beautiful  in  color,  reflecting  the  light 
where  the  light  falls  on  it,  and  shading  almost 
to  black  in  the  shadows.  It  was  thus  that  Millet 
painted  it,  and  it  was  with  deliberate  intent  that 
he  put  it  there.  This  artistic  purpose  was  quickly 
recognized  by  at  least  one  visitor  to  the  painting, 
one  who  had  "the  art  of  putting  things,"  if  ever 
a  man  had  —  the  late  Robert  Louis  Stevenson. 
When  he  saw  Millet's  painting  his  first  remark 
was:  "See  how  that  vivid  blue  explodes  like  a 
bombshell  in  the  middle  of  the  picture  and  illumi- 
nates it  all!" 

What  a  picture  it  is!  It  is  almost  colossal 
or  titanic  in  its  energy.  One  might  imagine  that 
two  of  the  Cyclops,  whose  work  it  was  to  forge 
thunderbolts  for  Zeus,  had  temporarily  left  their 
smithy  for  the  purpose  of  sawing  to  pieces  an 
immense  tree.  What  workmanlike  force  is  in 
the  action  of  the  two  men  who  wield  the  great 
saw!  What  grip  of  the  hands,  what  planting  of 
the  feet,  what  setting  of  the  shoulders  as  the  men 
"buckle  down"  to  their  heavy  task!  No  wonder 
that  Millet,  the  poet  of  the  poor,  should  have 
repudiated  the  "prettified"  rural  pictures  of  the 
fashionable  Watteau,  declaring  them  to  be  arti- 
ficial and  false.  Watteau's  point  of  view  was  that 
of  court  lords  and  ladies  masquerading  as  honest 
peasants  (aristocrats  whose  heartless  trifling  after- 
ward brought  on  the  French  Revolution),  while 
Millet  was  born  a  peasant  and  did  a  peasant's 
work  until  the  time  when,  through  his  pictures, 


128       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

he  began  eloquently  to  plead  the  cause  of  his  own 
people,  t 

It  is  possible  that  the  definitive  biography  of 
so  great  a  master  in  art  as  Millet  has  yet  to  be 
written.  Sensier's  biography  has  the  great  advan- 
tage of  being  a  "human  document"  written  by 
a  friend  who  had  known  the  artist  long  and  inti- 
mately; but  it  also  has  the  disadvantage  of  pre- 
senting Millet's  life  from  Sensier's  point  of  view 
alone,  and  in  consequence  the  book  lacks  his- 
torical perspective.  Still,  it  is  a  book  that  no 
serious  student  of  Millet  can  afford  to  neglect, 
and  for  purposes  of  study  the  American  transla- 
tion seems  to  be  the  more  useful,  because  in  it  a 
good  deal  of  irrelevant  matter  has  been  elimi- 
nated, while  the  essentials  remain. 

After  Sensier's  death,  many  people  came  for- 
ward with  the  declaration  that  the  biographer, 
instead  of  having  been  Millet's  good  angel,  had 
taken  advantage  of  the  artist's  necessities,  and 
had  exploited  him  unmercifully.  Undoubtedly 
Sensier  bought  Millet's  works  for  years  at  a  small 
fraction  of  the  price  which  the  same  works  would 
fetch  to-day,  and  it  is  equally  true  that  after  the 
master's  death  he  sold  them  at  a  great  profit;  but 
it  was  "that  or  nothing"  with  the  artist  in  those 
early  years,  and  this  was  not  Sensier's  fault.  It 
may  be  of  interest  here  to  record  on  this  question 
the  opinion  of  two  of  Millet's  own  children  with 
whom  the  present  writer  conversed  on  several 
occasions  during  the  summer  of  1900.  Charles 
Millet  declares  that  his  father  was  much  indebted 


A  NOTABLE  MASTERPIECE  BY  MILLET    129 

to  his  future  biographer  for  sympathetic  aid  of 
various  kinds;  and  his  sister,  Mme.  Saignier,  who 
was  grown  up  long  before  Millet  died,  frankly 
says:  "My  father  taught  his  children  to  love  and 
reverence  Alfred  Sensier  next  after  le  bon  Dieu." 


SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN1 

PAINTER-ETCHER 

Being  a  Condensation  of  the  Lecture  delivered  before 
the  Grolier  Club  and  afterward  repeated  at  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  Yale  Univer- 
sity, etc. 

THE  time  is  happily  past  when  an  "etching" 
was  supposed  to  be  a  drawing  done  with 
pen  and  ink,  and  when  a  collector  exhibiting  some 
fine  proof  was  liable  to  have  the  unmeaning 
question  put  to  him:  "Now  is  this  the  original?" 
—  as  if  there  were  only  one.  People  now  know 
what  an  etching  is  and  how  it  is  made,  they  know 
that  a  painter-etching  is  one  designed  as  well  as 
,  executed  by  its  author,  and  knowing  all  this  they 
understand  why,  of  all  forms  of  art-expression, 
painter-etching  is  the  most  personal  and  the  most 
intellectual.  The  time  is  also  past  when  an  etch- 
ing was  vaguely  believed  to  be  an  alleged  work  of 
art,  of  mysterious  and  obscure  significance,  "to 
the  Jews  a  stumbling-block  and  to  the  Greeks 
foolishness."  We  now  know  that  there  is  no 
mystery  about  it,  and  that  what  to  an  educated 
eye  looks  right  and  true  is  right  and  true,  while 
what  looks  wrong  and  false  is  wrong  and  false. 

1  Sir  Seymour  Haden  died  June  1,  1910,  in  his  ninety-second  year. 

130 


SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN  131 

To  the  superficial  and  unsympathetic  observer 
an  etching  may  appear  a  very  simple  and  trifling 
thing,  but  in  reality  it  is  a  most  difficult  thing 
to  produce  worthily.  We  have,  alas,  too  many 
etchings  —  such  as  they  are  —  but  the  world 
has  never  had  enough  really  fine  ones.  Master- 
etchers  of  the  first  rank  are  and  always  have  been 
very  few  indeed,  and  the  master  does  not  always 
rise  to  the  height  of  a  masterpiece.  The  master- 
piece in  art  must  be  perfect,  and  perfect  from  every 
point  of  view:  it  must  embody  a  noble  scheme 
nobly  expressed,  and  above  all  it  must  be  entirely 
original  and  entirely  personal  to  the  artist  who 
creates  it. 

These  things  being  so,  the  genuine  master  in 
I  etching  would  simply  be  stupid  if  he  were  devoid 
I  of  a  proper  sense  of  his  own  importance.     Rem- 
j  brandt  must  have  known  that  he  was  a  very 
I  great  man;  Van  Dyck  was  the  associate  of  kings 
I  and   nobles;   the  unhappy  Frenchman,   Meryon, 
while  slowly  going  mad  from  neglect  and  abso- 
lute hunger,  yet  indignantly  spurned  every  aid 
that  looked  like  charity;  Whistler,  through  evil 
report  and  good  report,  always  insisted  upon  the 
dignity  of  the  artist.     This  he  never  forgot  even 
while  waging  his  "never-ending,  still-beginning" 
fights  and  quarrels. 

This  noble  respect  of  the  artist  for  his  art  was 
once  quaintly  illustrated  by  the  great  singer 
Malibran.  Having  traveled  to  St.  Petersburg 
with  her  troupe,  the  Empress  Catherine  the  Great 
asked  her  to  name  her  price  for  a  series  of  operatic 


performances  there;  and,  astonished  at  what  she 
considered  the  exorbitant  demands  of  the  artiste, 
the  Empress  exclaimed,  "Why,  that  is  more 
than  I  pay  the  major-generals  of  my  army!"  to 
which  the  artiste  made  answer,  "Your  Majesty 
should  make  your  major-generals  sing  for  you!" 

Probably  no  artist  —  certainly  no  etcher  —  has 
vindicated  his  art  with  so  much  intellectual 
power,  such  convincing  authority  and  such  success 
as  has  Seymour  Haden.  I  speak  now  not  of  his 
etchings,  but  of  his  published  writings  and  of 
his  leadership  in  the  revival  of  painter-etching. 

It  is  curious  how  the  impetus  toward  some 
public  movement  seems  to  be  generated  almost 
simultaneously  in  the  minds  of  several  men,  often 
residing  far  apart  and  holding  no  communication 
with  each  other.  It  was  so  with  this  interest- 
ing revival.  Seymour  Haden  was  by  no  means 
the  only  etcher  or  the  only  writer;  but  he  stands 
alone  in  this:  that  he  combined  in  himself  the 
double  role  of  etcher  and  writer  of  the  first  rank. 
To  these  we  must  add  still  another  qualification: 
he  is  by  nature  a  man  of  affairs,  a  leader  of  men 
—  and  a  leader  of  artists,  which  I  take  to  be  a 
very  rare  qualification  indeed! 

He  found  painter-etching  almost  forgotten  and 
unknown,  —  a  vague  tradition  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  —  and  it  is  in  a  great  measure  due  to 
this  strong  and  earnest  man  that  in  his  own 
country  the  Association  of  Painter-Etchers  has 
been  raised,  by  decree  of  the  Sovereign,  to  the 
dignity  of  a  British  Royal  Society  —  the  equal 


PORTRAIT  OF  SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN 

Size  of  the  original  drawing,  9  by  8  inches. 

Sketched  (unknown  to  him)  in   the  Print  Room   of   the  British  Museum,  by  J. 
Wells  Champney  of  New  York. 


f   9€ts*4 


«   ?n 


1KM44 


*  \  ^      *f 

-&  n  XL*  /. 

•        U     y 
ft''^^  m   *^. 


Ar  i«-r<vK  * 

t, 


REPRODUCTION,  IN  REDUCED  SIZE,  OF  A  PAGE  OF  MANUSCRIPT 

IN  THE  HANDWRITING  OF  SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN  —  PRESIDENT 

OF  THE  ROYAL  SOCIETY  OF  PAINTER-ETCHERS,  LONDON. 


SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN  133 

in  rank  of  such  a  national  institution  as  the  Royal 
Academy  of  Arts. 

In  the  year  1768  the  Royal  Academy  was 
founded.  The  painter,  Joshua  Reynolds,  became 
its  first  president,  and  King  George  III  created 
him  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds;  and  in  1894  Queen 
Victoria  conferred  the  same  title  of  knighthood 
on  Seymour  Haden:  founder  and  first  president 
of  the  Royal  Society  of  Painter-Etchers. 

Seymour  Haden  was  born  at  number  62  Sloane 
Street,  London,  on  September  16,  1818.  His 
father  was  an  eminent  physician,  and  the  artist 
afterwards  practised  surgery  for  many  years  in 
the  house  where  he  was  born.  He  was  educated 
at  University  College,  London,  and  spent^  some 
time  in  Italy.  As  a  young  man  he  filled  the  office 
of  prosecteur  (or  anatomist)  at  the  military  hos- 
pital at  Grenoble,  France.  4 

In  a  recent  conversation  Sir  Seymour  Haden 
said  to  me:  "I  have  never  been  a  reading  man  — 
I  mean  that  very  little  of  what  I  may  know  has 
been  acquired  through  reading.  My  aim  through 
life  has  always  been  to  be  an  observer,  an  investi-  ' 
gator,  an  original  thinker  —  always  with  some 
definite  aim  and  with  some  progressive  purpose." 

On  another  occasion,  when  he  was  speaking 
of  his  passion  for  salmon  and  trout  fishing,  I  said l 
to  him  that  for  my  own  part  my  sympathies  were 
always  with  the  fish,  that  I  was  glad  when  they 
got  away,  and  that  I  never  could  understand 
why  men  of  eminent  mental  force  (such  as  some 
Presidents  of  the  United  States)  could  find  pleas- 


134        THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

ure  in  angling,  a  sport  which  to  me  seemed  idle 
and  empty.  I  even  ventured  to  fortify  my 
own  opinion  by  quoting  Dr.  Johnson's  famous 
definition  of  the  angler's  implement,  "A  long 
rod  and  line,  with  a  fly  at  one  end,  and  a  fool  at 
the  other."  But  to  this  he  made  answer:  "You 
are  altogether  wrong,  and  if,  as  you  say,  angling 
has  a  peculiar  charm  for  men  of  powerful  and 
active  intellect,  it  is  because  it  calls  into  play  all 
the  powers  of  observation." 

These  details  may  indicate  that,  in  whatever 
he  has  done,  Sir  Seymour  could  be  nothing  if 
not  original.  In  Addison's  Spectator  there  is  a 
passage  to  the  effect  that  every  good  man  has 
aholjby,  while  the  bad  supply  its  place  with  a 
vice;  and  it  sometimes  happens  that  a  man's  hobby 
proves  to  be  the  most  valuable  part  of  his  life- 
work.  It  was  so  with  Seymour  Haden,  and  his 
hobby  was  etching. 

.     Instances   are   not  rare  of   men   who,   having 
/utterly  failed  in  one  career,  have  afterwards  suc- 
/  ceeded  in  another  totally  different.     But  for  a 
•  busy  surgeon  first  to  achieve  eminence  in  his  own 
exacting  profession,  and  then,  comparatively  late 
in  life,  to  take  up  painter-etching,  the  most  diffi- 
cult of  all  the  graphic  arts,  and  in  it  to  produce 
work  which  ranks  him  throughout  Europe  and 
America  as  the  greatest  living  landscape-etcher, 
is  only  another  proof  that  genius  is  not  tied  down 
by  ordinary  limitations;  that  where  it  exists  it 
will  assert  itself  triumphantly;  and  that  the  artist, 
like  the  poet,  is  "born,  not  made." 


SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN  135 

"How  knoweth  this  man  letters,  having  never 
learned?"  is  the  question  recorded  in  the  gospel; 
but  though  Seymour  Haden,  fortunately,  was 
never  taught  art  in  the  schools,  yet  any  one  who 
supposes  that  he  is  not  a  most  thoroughly  trained 
artist  makes  a  very  great  mistake.  No  artist's 
work  is  further  removed  from  being  what  is  called 
"amateurish." 

Perhaps  the  highest  attainment  in  every  art  is 
a  certain  noble  and  learned  simplicity  —  never 
to  be  mistaken  for  the  awkward  simplicity  of 
ignorance.  A  French  critic  says  that  no  one 
does  a  thing  thoroughly  well  unless  he  does  it 
with  ease.  The  "art  which  conceals  art"  — 
which  can  hide  all  evidences  of  effort  —  is  a  very 
high  attainment. 

Seymour  Haden's  work  is  instinct  with  this 
masterly  quality.  It  is  full  of  what  he  himself 
calls  "the  labor  of  omission."  Of  etching  as 
compared  with  painting,  he  writes:  "The  painter, 
by  overlaying  his  work,  may  modify  and  correct 
it  as  he  goes  on.  Not  so  the  etcher.  Every 
stroke  he  makes  must  tell  strongly  against  him 
if  it  be  bad,  or  prove  him  a  master  if  it  be  good. 
In  no  branch  of  art  does  a  touch  go  for  so  much. 
The  necessity  for  a  rigid  selection  is  therefore 
constantly  present  in  his  mind.  If  one  stroke 
in  the  right  place  tells  more  for  him  than  ten  in 
the  wrong,  it  would  seem  to  follow  that  that 
single  stroke  is  a  more  learned  stroke  than  the 
ten  by  which  he  would  have  arrived  at  his  end." 
"The  faculty  of  doing  such  work  supposes  a 


136       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

concentration  and  a  reticence  requisite  in  no  other 
art."  And  he  goes  on  to  say  that,  for  these 
reasons,,  etching,  of  all  arts,  is  the  least  suited  to 
the  half-educated  artist.  We  have  all,  alas,  seen 
too  many  demonstrations  of  the  truth  of  this! 
I  confess  that  in  thus  quoting  from  Seymour 
Haden's  writings,  I  am  putting  my  own  efforts 
at  a  great  disadvantage.  The  quotation  stands 
out  like  the  new  patch  in  the  old  garment. 

Admitting  that  Seymour  Haden  was  a  born 
artist,  richly  endowed  with  the  creative  faculty, 
how  was  it  that  he  also  became  the  superb  techni- 
cian that  he  is?  This  did  not  come  to  him  by 
nature  —  nor  does  it  come  to  any  one.  It  came 
to  him  through  long,  hard,  earnest  study  and 
practise.  He  studied  the  best  models  —  Rem- 
brandt's etchings  above  all.  He  was  never  afraid 
to  pay  the  necessary  price  for  a  faultless  proof 
by  Rembrandt.  But  even  before  he  began  to 
form  his  unsurpassed  collection  of  the  old  master- 
pieces it  was  his  custom  to  borrow  a  portfolio 
of  such  etchings  from  a  London  dealer  whom  I 
myself  remember  as  a  very  old  man,  Mr.  Love, 
of  Bunhill  Row,  and  carrying  home  such  treasures 
he  would  sit  up  at  night  with  them  —  not  only 
delighting  in  their  beauty,  as  other  amateurs  do, 
but  also  studying  and  analyzing  the  method  and 
technic  of  each  master.  Then,  after  long  prac- 
tice in  drawing,  and  with  an  intimate  technical 
knowledge  of  the  recognized  masterpieces  of 
etching,  he  himself  began  to  etch. 

Thereafter    his    hard-earned    holidays    in    the 


KENSINGTON   GARDENS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8  by  5  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Seymour  Haden.  This  is  a  splendid  example  of  the  artist's 
masterly  drawing  of  tree-forms.  Among  modern  etchers  of  landscape  Sey- 
mour Haden  easily  ranks  first. 


EGHAM  LOCK 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5|  by  8|  inches. 


EGHAM 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5  by  7|  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  Seymour  Haden.  These  two  etchings  were  done  upon  the 
same  day  and  from  the  same  place  —  one  looking  up  and  the  other  down  the 
river  Thames. 


SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN  137 

country  were  devoted  to  etching  the  beautiful 
English  landscape.  These  plates  were  etched 
out  of  doors,  on  the  spot,  and  generally  at  a 
single  sitting. 

If  he  had  been  one  of  the  regular  makers  of 
pictures  for  sale,  he  would  have  first  ascertained 
what  sort  of  pictures  the  public  were  buying, 
and  would  then  have  tried  to  produce  something 
to  suit  the  market.  Or  else,  knowing  that  the 
works  of  some  artists  were  popular,  he  would 
have  made  an  imitation  of  them.  But,  happily 
for  art,  every  one  of  Seymour  Haden's  etchings, 
from  first  to  last,  was  done  in  his  own  way,  solely 
to  please  himself,  and  (except  in  the  case  of  a 
very  few  of  his  later  plates)  with  no  view  what- 
ever to  publicity  or  sale. 

Indeed,  he  was  thus  producing  masterpieces 
for  nearly  twenty  years,  when,  at  the  instance  of 
a  few  enlightened  amateurs  on  the  Continent  of 
Europe,  he  finally  consented,  in  1865,  to  the  pub- 
lication of  a  selection  of  twenty-five  of  his  plates. 

These  were  published  in  Paris;  for  it  was  sup- 
posed that  in  England  nobody  would  understand 
them.  But  when  France  set  the  example  Eng- 
land eagerly  followed,  and  the  whole  edition  was 
very  soon  sold. 

But   notwithstanding  this,  hi  England   thirty 

years  ago  taste  in  art  was  in  a  very  sad  condition . 

generally.     A  picture,  to  please  the  public,  had 

[to  be  of  a  formal,  prim,   "goody-goody"  char- 

[acter,  and  was  expected  to  tell  some  sort  of  a 

pretty    little    story.     The    nobler    attributes    of 


138       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

art  —  the  imaginative,  the  suggestive,  the  really 
artistic  qualities  —  were  generally  ignored.  He 
who  could  most  slavishly  imitate  the  external 
form  and  texture  of  an  object  was  the  best  artist. 
The  great  John  Ruskin  had  nothing  better  to  say 
of  etching  than  that  it  was  "a  blundering  art": 
and  I  well  remember  an  elderly  English  painter 
saying  to  me,  when  denouncing  the  French  school 
and  all  its  works:  "Even  their  very  landscapes 
are  immoral!"  But,  as  General  Grant  once 
said,  "a  bad  law  is  sure  to  work  its  own  cure"; 
and  the  impulse  toward  a  freer,  more  suggestive, 
more  intellectual  art  came  to  England  and  to 
America  mainly  from  France  —  and  the  French 
got  it  from  such  masters  as  Rembrandt.  And 
yet  it  was  at  this  very  discouraging  time  that 
Seymour  Haden  and  Whistler  were  producing 
those  etchings  that  all  the  world  now  accepts  as 
masterpieces.  The  earlier  proofs  of  them  only 
got  into  circulation  through  being  given  away  by 
the  artists;  for  at  that  time  nobody  would  dream 
of  buying  a  contemporary  etching. 

Truly  the  ancient  Israelites  were  not  the  only 
people  who  first  stoned  their  prophets  and  after- 
wards built  sepulchers  in  their  honor;  and  Whistler 
—  a   man  who  conciliates   nobody  —  most   pun- 
gently  says  to  the  critics  who  now  lavish  their 
praise    on    his    London    etchings    of    over    forty 
Jlyears  ago:  "If  they  are  so  good  now,  why  were 
{ Jthey  not  also  good  when  you  first  saw  them?" 

And  now,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  will  conclude 
with  a  criticism  on  my  own  lecture! 


ag 

•*•>-£    Q 


n 

t  §12 

3,11! 

Hill 


Q 

3     •-    "3 

O  ^'E^ 


^        Pi     S     3     H 

K  •§1£PC3'~ 


CARDIGAN   BRIDGE 

Size  oi  the  original  print,  4j  by  6  inches. 


NEWCASTLE  IN  EMLYN 

Size  of  the  original  print,  4j  by  6  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  Seymour  Haden.  These  two  plates  and  three  others  of 
similar  subjects  were  etched  in  one  day,  August  17,  1864.  Though  not  among 
the  rare  plates,  they  are  among  the  finest  from  the  standpoint  of  artistic  quality. 


SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN  139 

It  is  that  I  may  have  said  too  much  about 
Seymour  Haden  the  man,  and  not  enough  about 
Seymour  Haden  the  artist.  As  to  his  art,  wiser 
heads  than  mine  have  expounded  it  and  will^go 
on  expounding  it  in  the  time  to  come;  and  I  am 
only  one  of  the  many  who  believe  that  these 
etchings  of  his  are  to  be  included  in  the  perma- 
nently great  art  work  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

But  for  my  own  part,  if  I  speak  of  him  at  all, 
I  must  speak  as  I  feel,  and  I  cannot  make  my 
words  impersonal  and  abstract;  and  (to  quote 
what  Shakespeare  makes  Mark  Antony  say  of 
his  friend  Julius  Caesar): 

"That  they  know  full  well 
That  gave  me  public  leave  to  speak  of  him." 

It  is  because  I  have  known  Seymour  Haden 
long  and  well,  and  because  there  is  no  man  liv- 
ing for  whom  I  have  a  greater  regard  or  a  higher 
esteem. 


SIR   SEYMOUR  HADEN 

PAINTER-ETCHER 

Reprinted,  by  permission,  from  "The  Outlook" 

IN  writing  of  a  celebrity  who  has  already  been 
much  written  about,  it  is  sometimes  not  easy 
to  avoid  the  "rethreshing  of  old  straw";  but  even 
admitting  this,  we  must  also  admit  that  very 
much  depends  upon  the  particular  sort  of  straw 
we  may  be  threshing. 

Among  the  makers  of  pictures  some  artists 
yield  us  their  little  all,  very  quickly,  while  others 
may  be  compared  to  certain  mines  where  the 
precious  ore  is  almost  inexhaustible,  and  where 
the  more  you  delve  the  more  you  get. 

In  any  creative  art  —  whether  it  be  pictures 
or  poetry  or  music  or  fiction  —  it  often  happens 
that  the  shallow  and  adroit  practitioner  wins  his 
reward  more  quickly  and  more  largely  than  does 
his  profounder  and  more  original  brother.  The 
former  is  like  a  bird  that  sings  one  little  song. 
His  message  is  obvious  and  is  quickly  understood 
of  all;  while  the  truly  original  and  creative  artist 
brings  a  message  so  unusual,  so  unheard  of,  that 
it  is  at  first  like  Saint  Paul's  new  doctrine  —  "to 
the  Jews  a  stumbling-block,  and  to  the  Greeks 
foolishness."  Still  another  thing  which  militates 
against  the  immediate  success  of  the  artist  of 

140 


SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN  141 

real  originality  is  that  he  never  repeats  himself; 
each  picture  is  a  new  problem  worked  out  in  a 
new  way,  and  it  never  is  a  disguised  repetition 
of  some  former  success  of  his.  In  speaking  thus 
I  by  no  means  intend  to  intimate  that,  in  art, 
what  is  clear  and  obvious  is  bad,  while  what  is 
obscure  and  hard  to  understand  is  good.  Indeed, 
I  believe  that  obscurity  —  which  is  not  profun- 
dity—  is  my  "pet  aversion."  Furthermore,  Sey- 
mour Haden  is  not  obscure,  yet  it  took  him  many 
years  to  win  recognition. 

A  signal  demonstration  may  be  found  in  the 
careers  of  two  renowned  French  contemporaries 
—  Meissonier  and  Millet.  Meissonier's  brilliant 
monetary  success  as  painter  and  etcher  began 
early  and  increased  to  the  end  of  his  long  life. 
He  had  consummate  dexterity,  but  he  went  on 
repeating  variations  of  just  one  artistic  idea. 
Millet's  sad  story  is  too  well  known  to  be  repeated 
here.  He  was  the  profound  originator,  whose 
style  was  a  surprise  to  the  public,  and  so  he 
struggled  on  in  dire  poverty  during  the  years 
when  he  was  producing  paintings  and  etchings 
which  were  then  despised  and  neglected,  but 
which,  according  to  the  verdict  of  a  later  genera- 
tion, now  rank  as  masterpieces;  and  among  the 
great  masters  in  art  Millet  has  surely  "come  to 
stay." 

Unquestionably  the  art  of  Seymour  Haden  has 
come  to  stay  also.  Within  the  modest  limits  of 
pictures  in  black  and  white,  and  in  the  opinion 
of  the  best  judges,  his  etchings  must  assuredly 


142        THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

rank   among   the   permanently   great   art   works 
of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Before  more  definitely  considering  the  etchings, 
dry-points,  and  mezzotints  of  Seymour  Haden,  it 
may  not  be  amiss  for  us  to  recall  the  elementary 
a  b  c  of  the  etcher's  technique,  so  as  better  to 
understand  an  etching  when  we  examine  it. 
This  may  have  the  same  good  effect  that  athletes 
derive  from  the  daily  practise  which  keeps  them 
"fit,"  or  it  may  be  compared  to  the  lifelong  daily 
habit  of  the  great  singer  Adelina  Patti.  Every 
day  of  her  professional  life  she  sang  the  simple 
do,  re,  mi  of  her  early  girlhood,  and  thus  she  con- 
served her  glorious  voice  so  that  it  outlasted  the 
voices  of  all  her  contemporary  rivals. 

Etchings,  then,  are  impressions  printed  from 
a  copper  plate  upon  which  the  etcher  has  drawn 
and  "bitten"  or  corroded  his  composition;  and 
the  prime  advantage  of  the  etching  process  is 
that  it  does  not  hamper  the  etcher  with  the  tedious 
difficulties  of  line  engraving,  but  allows  him  abso- 
lute freedom  and  lightness  of  touch  while  he  is 
at  work.  Hence  the  prime  virtue  of  a  good 
etching  is  its  spontaneity  and  freshness,  and  Sir 
Seymour  Haden  declares  that  his  finest  plates 
were  etched  at  a  single  sitting.  But  danger  lies 
in  this  same  advantage  of  facility.  The  French 
artist  Paul  Rajon  well  expressed  this  danger  when 
he  said,  "It  is  so  easy  to  make  an  etching,  and  so 
hard  —  so  very  hard  —  to  make  a  good  one." 

But  while  the  mere  drawing  of  the  design  on 
the  copper  plate  is  mechanically  a  simple  matter, 


II 

c5    O 
~    TJ1 

~  1 

§7 
S  a 

*~ 
a:  so 


E.2 


OUT  OF  STUDY  WINDOW 

Size  of  the  original  print,  4|  by  10|  inches. 


EARLY  MORNING  —  RICHMOND 

Size  of  original  print,  4f  by  lOf  inches. 


FULHAM 

Size  of  the  original  print,  4|  by  11  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  Seymour  Haden.  "Out  of  Study  Window"  (etched  in  1859) 
is  a  view  from  an  upper  window  in  Sir  Seymour  Haden's  house  in  Sloane  Street. 
In  the  mid-distance  is  the  suburb  of  Brompton.  "Early  Morning  —  Rich- 
mond," was  done  actually  at  sunrise,  and  is  dated  1859. 


SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN  143 

the  subsequent  "biting  in"  of  its  lines  on  the 
copper  is  full  of  danger  to  the  unskilled.  Even 
in  the  prints  of  Rembrandt,  who  was  the  king 
of  all  etchers,  the  treacherous  acid  occasionally 
played  him  ugly  tricks,  some  of  his  plates  being 
overbitten  and  hence  too  heavy,  or  underbitten 
and  hence  too  light. 

While  in  pure  etching  the  lines  which  make 
the  picture  are  bitten  or  corroded  into  the  plate 
by  an  acid  —  the  rest  of  the  surface  being  pro- 
tected by  a  sort  of  varnish  —  the  dry-point  proc- 
ess is  quite  different.  In  dry-point  the  artist 
dispenses  with  the  coating  of  varnish  and  also 
with  the  use  of  acid,  for  he  scratches  the  lines  of 
his  design,  with  a  steel  point,  upon  the  bare  copper 
plate. 

The  mezzotint  process  is  radically  different 
from  all  others.  In  it  the  artist  puts  in  the  whites 
of  his  picture,  while  in  line  engraving,  etching, 
and  dry-point  he  puts  in  the  blacks.  Also,  the 
mezzotint  shows  us  a  picture  composed,  not  of 
lines,  but  of  tones  ranging  in  gradation  from 
black  to  white,  and  giving  an  effect  somewhat  like 
that  of  a  glorified  photograph. 

Still  another  important  matter  in  the  making 
of  an  artistic  etching  or  other  print  is  the  print- 
ing of  it  from  the  prepared  plate.  Unlike  typog- 
raphy —  which  prints  from  the  inked  surface  of 
the  type,  and  prints  very  rapidly  —  etchings, 
etc.,  are  printed,  not  from  the  surface  of  the  plate, 
but  from  the  incised  lines  which  form  the  picture. 
The  printer  first  covers  the  whole  surface  of  his 


144   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

plate  with  a  thick,  oily  ink.  Having  thoroughly 
filled  the  lines  with  it,  he  wipes  off  what  remains 
on  the  surface,  and  this  wiping  supplies  the  white 
of  the  picture.  Meanwhile  the  ink  remains  in 
the  incised  lines  of  the  copper.  The  printer  is 
now  ready  to  "pull"  his  proof;  so  he  lays  his 
plate  on  the  platform  of  a  roller-press,  lays  a  sheet 
of  dampened  blank  paper  over  it,  passes  both  under 
the  heavy  roller,  and  then,  in  carefully  lifting 
the  paper  from  the  plate,  he  finds  that  the  pres- 
sure has  transferred  the  ink  from  the  etched  plate 
to  the  sheet  of  paper  —  which  latter,  when  care- 
fully dried,  becomes  a  "proof  etching"  —  and 
the  printer  goes  slowly  on  "pulling"  other 
similar  proofs.  Some  eminent  artists,  including 
Whistler  and  Pennell,  have  found  it  best  to  do 
their  own  printing,  so  as  to  have  each  proof 
exactly  what  it  was  intended  to  be;  and  so  im- 
portant is  fine  quality  in  each  impression  or  proof 
that  a  very  fine  print  by  such  an  old  master  as 
Diirer  or  Rembrandt  will  sell  to-day  for  quite 
fifty  times  the  price  that  could  be  obtained  for  a 
bad  or  worn  impression  from  the  very  same  plate. 
F  Francis  Seymour  Haden  was  born  at  number  62 
Sloane  Street,  London,  on  September  16,  1818. 
To  those  of  us  who  are  no  longer  "as  young  as 
we  used  to  be,"  it  is  a  comfort  to  remember  that, 
in  general,  the  human  intellect  is  likely  to  outlast 
the  rest  of  the  human  machine,  and  also  that 
the  more  a  man's  mind  is  worked  the  better 
it  grows  and  the  longer  it  lasts.  To-day  it  is 
thus  with  Sir  Seymour  Haden.  He  can  no  longer 


II 

1-2 
J-S 

II 

II 


, 

J~ 


S  § 
•£  £ 

ill 

*£        T^   « 

—  t4"  ^,"2. 


-r     ~ 
*" 


£  2.3. 


TOWING  PATH 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5|  by  8f  inches. 


A  WATER   MEADOW 

Size  of  the  original  print,  6  by  8|  inches. 

From  the  dry-point  and  the  etching  by  Seymour  Haden.  Of  "Towing  Path" 
the  artist  writes,  "Mr.  Haden  always  thought  this  one  of  his  best  plates;'' 
and  of  "A  Water  Meadow,"  "I  like  this  plate,  which  is  saying  a  great  deal. 
S.  H." 


SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN  145 

climb  a  mountain  or  spend  a  long  day  at  his 
favorite  sport  of  angling  for  salmon;  but  his 
mental  activity  and  force  might  well  be  coveted  by 
many  a  man  young  enough  to  be  his  grandson. 
In  character  he  has  always  been  a  strong,  positive, 
emphatic  man,  and  the  virility  of  his  nature  is 
clearly  apparent  in  his  pictures.  Like  the  pres- 
ent German  Kaiser,  Sir  Seymour  never  tires  of 
praising  his  own  grandfather,  and  he  loves  to 
relate  how,  a  century  ago,  when  a  great  mob  of 
rioters  had  surrounded  the  old  man's  factory, 
and  were  about  to  burn  it  down,  old  Thomas 
Haden,  of  Derby,  then  past  eighty,  armed  him- 
self with  a  stout  horsewhip,  mounted  his  horse, 
rode  all  alone  into  the  thick  of  the  rioters,  flogged 
every  man  of  them  off  the  premises,  and  sent 
them  all  scampering  away  like  so  many  wild 
rabbits ! 

Like  the  Kaiser  again,  Sir  Seymour  has  less  to 
say  about  his  own  father,  but  it  is  known  that  he 
was  an  eminent  physician  and  highly  respected 
as  a  man,  and  after  his  death  his  son  Seymour 
succeeded  to  his  practise  in  the  Sloane  Street 
house  where  he  was  born.  There  he  rose  to  emi- 
nence as  a  surgeon,  and  he  is  still  one  of  the  Fel- 
lows of  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons.  But,  in 
accordance  with  the  antiquated  British  usage, 
he  never  was  "Doctor"  —  only  plain  "Mister"  — 
Haden,  until  the  day  when  Queen  Victoria  con- 
ferred a  title  of  knighthood  on  him  as  President 
of  the  Royal  Society  of  Painter-Etchers,  and  in 
recognition  of  his  great  achievements  as  an  etcher. 


146       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Other  signal  honors  were  not  lacking.  At  the 
Paris  Exposition  of  1889  he  won  the  Grand  Prix, 
or  Medal  of  Honor,  for  his  etchings,  and  this 
supreme  distinction  was  a  second  time  conferred 
upon  him  at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1900  for  his 
mezzotints,  most  of  these  mezzotints  being  the 
work  of  his  extreme  old  age. 

In  Dr.  Holmes' s  fine  poem,  The  Voiceless,  he 
says:  "Alas  for  those  who  never  sing,  but  die 
with  all  their  music  in  them!"  Sir  Seymour  (who 
was  a  friend  of  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes)  might 
I  have  died  with  all  his  music  in  him  if  he  had  not 
I  taken  long  and  laborious  pains  to  make  himself  a 
I  consummate  draughtsman.  Shakespeare  makes 
/  his  clown  Dogberry  say  that  "reading  and  writing 
*  come  by  nature";  perhaps  they  may  —  but  mas- 
terly power  in  drawing  certainly  does  not.  It 
can  come  only  through  long  and  hard  study,  and 
even  with  that  it  comes  only  to  one  man  in  ten 
thousand. 

Nearly  all  of  Seymour  Haden's  works  were  done 
out  of  doors  and  with  the  landscape  before  him; 
and,  excepting  a  few  later  ones  (after  fame  had 
overtaken  him),  they  were  all  done  solely  to  please 
himself  and  with  no  purpose  of  exhibiting  or  sell- 
ing them.  The  greater  number  of  his  plates  are 
in  pure  etching.  In  some  cases  he  enriched  the 
effect  of  his  etched  plate  by  adding  touches  of 
dry-point,  and  among  his  mezzotints  some  are 
done  over  an  outline  or  skeleton  of  etched  lines, 
while  others  are  entirely  mezzotinted. 

No  artist  has  depicted  trees  quite  so  truly  and 


8*3 

g'-SJi 

0  *J 

§sa 

01  o 
=i^ 

^j    0)  -O 

3    £    § 

^    O.S 

_  Q  CB 

g    4J  •*-> 

8-o-e 

"S  2 

c3    c3    >. 

w^  s 
fe.ti  § 

§-§s 

S  cs  « 


«.s 


U  .-    t£ 

" 


e  «•• 

- 


B*  8*3 

°  fc-c'U 

^  l^ffi 

O    O    4)    - 


III  I 

2  1  :».  « 


a.sa-s 


ERITH   MARSHES 

Size  of  the  original  print,  9|  by  15  inches. 


' 


ENCOMBE  WOODS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8f  by  13^  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  Seymour  Haden.  Erith  Marshes,  etched  in  1865,  was  done 
in  company  with  Daubigny,  the  eminent  French  painter.  Encombe  Woods, 
etched  in  1882,  is  a  fine  example  of  the  artist's  later,  bolder  manner. 


SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN  147 

so  beautifully  as  he.  In  seeing  the  work  of  many 
other  landscape  artists  we  have  a  feeling  that 
their  trees  were  somehow  stuck  down  into  the 
ground;  but  Seymour  Haden  always  makes  his 
trees  grow  out  of  it.  He  once  put  the  question 
to  me:  "At  what  season  do  you  think  a  tree  is 
most  beautiful?"  I  answered  that  I  thought  it 
must  be  at  midsummer,  when  the  foliage  was  at 
it  richest.  But  he  answered,  "No,  it  is  in  the 
spring,  when  you  see  not  only  the  tender  young 
leaves,  but  also  the  whole  construction  of  branches 
and  twigs." 

Sir  Seymour  Haden  married  an  American  wife. 
Lady  Haden  was  the  daughter  of  Major  George  W. 
Whistler,  of  the  United  States  army,  and  half- 
sister  of  Whistler,  the  great  artist.  Major  Whistler 
was  eminent  as  an  engineer.  It  was  he  who  really 
was  the  "brains"  in  designing  and  constructing 
the  famous  first  railroad  in  Russia,  which  runs 
between  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow.  Some  years 
before  her  death  Lady  Haden  became  totally  blind; 
but  that  terrible  affliction  did  not  disable  her. 
With  a  beautiful,  quiet  courage,  she  conducted  the 
affairs  of  Sir  Seymour's  fine  old  residence,  Woodcote 
Manor,  Hampshire.  She  wrote  her  own  letters, 
and,  on  occasion,  I  have  heard  her  laugh  as  heart- 
ily as  a  young  girl.  All  the  art  of  the  Whistler 
family  was  manifested  in  the  music  of  Lady 
Haden.  To  have  seen  her  groping  her  way  to 
her  piano,  and  to  have  heard  her  play,  superbly 
and  from  memory,  some  great  composition  of 
Beethoven  or  Chopin  was  one  of  the  most  affecting 


148   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

things  that  I  have  ever  witnessed  in  my  life. 
Years  ago  Lady  Haden  developed  musical  skill 
among  the  rustics  of  the  neighboring  village  of 
Bramdean.  She  taught  the  violin  to  Tom  the 
shepherd,  the  flute  to  Dick  the  cowherd,  and  the 
trombone  to  Harry  the  plowman;  and  it  was  not 
long  before  her  rustic  orchestra  learned  to  play 
very  respectably,  while  that  sweet  and  gentle 
old  lady  wielded  the  conductor's  baton.  As  to 
the  pictorial  art  which  might  be  expected  from 
one  of  the  name  of  Whistler,  Sir  Seymour  has 
proudly  said  to  me  of  his  wife,  "She  could  make 
as  good  pictures  as  anybody  if  she  liked." 

Besides  his  achievements  in  etching,  Seymour 
Haden  has  done  valuable  work  through  his  writ- 
ings in  promotion  of  his  favorite  art.  When  he 
began  to  write  and  to  lecture  on  the  subject, 
many  educated  people  thought  that  an  etching 
was  a  sort  of  scribbled  drawing  done  on  paper 
with  pen  and  ink.  The  great  tradition  of  Rem- 
brandt and  of  Claude  Lorrain  in  the  seventeenth 
century  was  forgotten,  and  when  Seymour  Haden 
began  to  assert  himself,  art  in  England  was  in  a 
sad  state.  Every  picture  was  expected  to  tell 
some  "goody-goody"  pretty  little  story,  and  the 
"artist"  who  could  make  the  closest  imitation 
of  external  textures  and  surfaces  was  the  great 
man  of  the  hour.  The  intellectual  and  suggest- 
ive qualities  of  a  picture  were  quite  ignored,  and 
it  is  greatly  due  to  this  strong  and  earnest  man 
that  we  now  see  things  differently. 

The  reader  of  this  article  may  have  noticed 


NINE   BARROW  DOWN 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5|  by  8|  inches. 


WINDMILL  HILL,   NUMBER  TWO 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5f  by  8|  inches. 

From  the  dry-points  by  Seymour  Haden.  These  two  plates  were  done  in  1877, 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  Swanage,  in  Devonshire.  Of  "Windmill 
Hill"  the  artist  writes,  "I  like  this  plate.  S.  H.";  and  it  certainly  is  one  of 
his  finest. 


SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN  149 

that  I  do  not  waste  his  time  by  attempting  to 
give  lengthy  verbal  descriptions  of  the  style, 
manner,  and  effect  of  Seymour  Haden's  pictures. 
The  reading  of  a  printed  description  of  a  work 
of  art  is  about  as  unsatisfying  as  the  reading  of  a 
bill  of  fare  by  a  hungry  man  —  when  no  dinner 
is  forthcoming.  Fortunately,  such  attempts  at 
description  are  not  necessary  on  this  occasion. 
In  ancient  Greece  a  youth  was  urged  to  go  and 
hear  a  man  who  gave  a  wonderful  imitation  of 
the  nightingale.  To  this  the  young  philosopher 
quietly  replied:  "I  have  heard  the  nightingale 
herself."  The  illustrations  in  this  book  must  take 
the  part  of  "the  nightingale  herself." 

Three  centuries  ago  "rare  Ben  Jonson"  gave 
a  wise  piece  of  advice  in  the  verses  which  he  ap- 
pended to  the  engraved  portrait  of  Shakespeare 
which  is  found  in  the  precious  first  folio  edition  of 
the  great  poet's  plays. 

This  advice  to  those  who  would  know  "the 
gentle  Shakespeare"  was  —  "To  look,  not  on 
his  picture,  but  his  book."  In  the  present  case 
the  circumstances  are  reversed,  and  to  those 
who  would  know  the  art  of  Seymour  Haden,  I 
would  give  the  counsel  that  they  look  less  upon 
my  pages  than  on  his  pictures. 

THE    MAN    AND    HIS    WORK 

The  notable  revival  of  painter-etching  in  the 
nineteenth  century,  that  is  to  say,  works  which 
were  designed  as  well  as  etched  by  the  artist, 


150   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

was  directly  inspired  by  the  etchings  which  Rem- 
brandt had  done  two  centuries  earlier. 

The  main  characteristic  of  such  etchings  is 
that  each  artist  is  free  to  express  himself  in  his 
own  personal  way  and  is  not  tied  down  by  a  set 
of  hard-and-fast  rules  and  traditions,  as  was  the 
case  with  the  old  line  engravers. 

About  the  year  1820,  in  England,  Sir  David 
Wilkie  and  Andrew  Geddes  (both  of  them  Scotch- 
men) practised  etching  and  dry-point  in  what  may 
be  called  the  true  manner.  A  few  years  later  the 
French  artists  burst  into  activity  on  the  same 
lines,  and  in  both  countries  etchings  of  genuine 
artistic  value  were  produced.  The  years  1858  to 
1862  have  given  us  many  etched  masterpieces. 
In  these  years  Seymour  Haden,  Whistler,  Meryon, 
and  J.  F.  Millet  were  working  in  the  plenitude  of 
their  power.  Many  other  etchers  were  producing 
more  or  less  good  work  also;  but  some  of  the  latter 
have  —  as  a  witty  Frenchman  puts  it  —  "already 
outlived  their  own  immortality." 

But  the  reverse  is  the  case  with  the  four  artists 
whose  names  are  cited  above.  With  regard  to 
these  the  estimation  of  their  work  grows  and  in- 
creases more  and  more,  and  it  is  likely  to  go  on 
increasing  while  the  etchings  of  many  good  sec- 
ond-class artists  are  now  neglected.  The  motto 
of  discriminating  art-lovers  to-day  seems  to  be — 
"Let  us  have  the  very  best  or  else  none  at  all." 
Meryon,  Whistler,  and  Millet  all  "rest  from  their 
labors,"  but  Sir  Seymour  Haden  is  still  alive  and 
fairly  well  at  the  patriarchal  age  of  ninety-three. 


a  » 


SS5 

V    <-, 


z-E 


O  • 


ll 


I 


'•I 


HARLECH 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7|  by  lOf  inches. 


THE  TEST  AT  LONGPARISH    . 
Size  of  the  original  print,  7  by  10J  inches. 

From  the  mezzotint  and  the  etching  by  Seymour  Haden.  In  "Harlech"  the  artist 
has  first  mezzotinted  his  composition  and  has  then  strengthened  and  defined 
the  outlines  with  etched  lines.  This  is  the  reverse  of  the  method  employed  by 
Turner  in  the  Liber  Studiorum.  Turner  first  etched  the  main  lines  of  his  com- 
position and  then  finished  the  plate  in  mezzotint. 


SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN  151 

Seymour  Haden  was  born  in  London  in  the 
year  1818.  He  is  the  senior,  by  seven  years,  of 
Meryon,  and  by  sixteen  years  of  Whistler,  while 
he  is  the  junior  of  Millet  by  four  years;  but  he 
has  outlived  the  other  three  and  Millet  died 
thirty-five  years  ago. 

Of  the  four  great  modern  masters  of  painter- 
etching  whose  names  I  have  cited,  only  two  were 
professional  painters;  namely,  Millet  and  Whistler. 
Meryon  began  his  career  by  attempting  to  paint, 
but  when  he  exhibited  these  paintings  it  was  dis- 
covered that  he  was  hopelessly  color-blind,  and 
thereafter  all  of  his  work  was  done  in  black  and 
white. 

Seymour  Haden  was  never  an  artist  by  profes- 
sion and  never  studied  in  any  art  school.  He  was 
a  very  eminent  surgeon,  and  he  only  practised 
etching  as  a  recreation;  but  as  an  artist  he  had 
"the  root  of  the  matter"  in  him,  and  although  he 
was  never  the  pupil  of  any  master,  yet  his  etch- 
ings of  British  landscape  have  been  accepted  as 
the  very  best  of  their  kind,  not  only  in  artistic 
conception,  but  also  by  reason  of  their  technical 
and  manual  superiority.  He  still  remains  Presi- 
dent of  the  London  Royal  Society  of  Painter- 
Etchers  and  he  is  recognized  throughout  Europe 
as  being  perhaps  the  very  best  living  judge  of 
the  quality  of  etchings  done  by  other  hands. 

Sir  Seymour  has  always  been  most  scrupulous 
as  to  the  fine  quality  of  any  proof  which  he  parted 
with;  defective  proofs  he  tore  up  relentlessly  — 
even  such  as  were  very  saleable  —  when  they  did 


not  come  up  quite  to  his  own  fastidious  standard, 
and  when  any  etched  plate  of  his  began  to  deteri- 
orate through  the  wear-and-tear  of  the  printing- 
press,  such  a  plate  was  at  once  destroyed  so  as  to 
make  it  impossible  that  it  could  print  any  more. 

Thus  has  Sir  Seymour  Haden  safeguarded,  for 
posterity,  his  own  artistic  reputation,  —  for  an  im- 
pression from  a  worn-out  plate  is  no  better  than 
a  libel  on  the  artist.  But  this  fastidiousness  had 
cost  him  dear,  and  I  have  often  known  him  to 
repurchase,  for  his  own  collection  of  his  etchings, 
rarities  which  the  collection  lacked,  and  at  enor- 
mous advances  on  the  prices  for  which  he  had 
originally  sold  them. 

Although  these  prices  have  greatly  increased 
within  the  past  thirty  years,  yet  it  is  pretty  cer- 
tain that  they  will  never  diminish,  but  that  they 
will  still  go  on  increasing  in  value  in  the  time  to 
come. 

On  September  16th,  1909,  Sir  Seymour  Haden 
celebrated  his  ninety-second  birthday  —  or  rather, 
the  British  press  and  the  art-loving  people  of 
Europe  and  America  celebrated  it  for  him. 

So  many  artists  of  great  promise  have  died 
in  their  early  prime  that  we  can  the  more  heart- 
ily congratulate  Sir  Seymour  upon  his  long  and 
fruitful  career  —  which  has  been  still  fuller  of 
honors  than  years. 

The  French  artists  and  critics,  who  in  gen- 
eral have  but  a  poor  opinion  of  British  art,  have 
nevertheless  on  two  memorable  occasions  awarded 


SIR  SEYMOUR  HADEN  153 

their  highest  official  recompense  to  Sir  Seymour 
Haden.  At  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1889  his 
etchings  won  the  Grand  Prix,  or  Medal  of  Honor, 
of  the  highest  grade,  and  at  their  latest  exposi- 
tion (1900)  Sir  Seymour's  original  drawings  and 
mezzotints  won  the  same  supreme  distinction. 
This  is  the  more  significant  when  we  remember 
that  no  other  British  artist  —  whether  painter, 
sculptor,  architect,  or  etcher  —  has  ever  before 
twice  won  the  Grand  Prix  of  the  Paris  Expo- 
sition. 

It  is  a  hopeful  sign  when  contemporary  art  in 
its  humbler  phases  is  influenced  and  improved 
by  the  work  of  a  genuine  master;  and  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  throughout  Europe  and 
America  the  average  product,  not  only  of  the  orig- 
inal landscape  etchers,  but  also  of  the  producers 
of  similar  subjects  in  books,  periodicals,  and  even 
newspapers,  is  distinctly  better  and  more  artistic 
by  reason  of  the  sound  and  wholesome  influence 
of  Seymour  Haden. 


CHARLES  MERYON 

A  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH 

ALTHOUGH  Charles  Meryon  would  not  be 

J^\.  a  very  old  man  if  he  were  living  to-day,  yet 

the  difficulty  of  procuring  his  etchings  is  almost 

as  great  as  it  would  be  in  the  case  of  Rembrandt, 

Van  Dyck,  or  Claude.    Few  were  printed,  because 

i  few  were  wanted,  and  to-day  these  few  are  eagerly 

/  sought  for,   or  jealously  hoarded  by  those  who 

possess  them. 

During  his  whole  career  as  an  artist  Meryon 

would  gladly  have  sold  one  of  his  finest  prints  for 

[the  price  of  his  breakfast.     The  value  to-day  of 

I  that  same  etching  would  have  sufficed  to  maintain 

I  him  in  comfort  for  a  year;  but  neglect,  disappoint- 

tment,  and  want  drove  him  insane,  and  he  died 

*  miserably  in  the  madhouse  of  Paris  in  1868. 

"The  case  of  Charles  Meryon  is  one  of  those 

(painful  ones  which  recur  in  every  generation,  to 
prove  the  fallibility  of  the  popular  judgment. 
Meryon  was  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  original 
artists  who  have  appeared  in  Europe;  he  is  one 
of  the  immortals;  his  name  will  be  inscribed  on 
the  noble  roll  where  Diirer  and  Rembrandt  live 
forever.  .  .  .  He  was  sorely  tried  by  public  and 
national  indifference,  and  in  a  moment  of  bitter 

154 


LE  STRYGE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  6f  by  5|  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Meryon,  dated  1853.  In  the  middle  distance  is  seen  the  Tour 
St.  Jacques.  This  brooding  demon  of  stone,  perched  high  up  on  the  northwest 
tower  of  the  cathedral  of  Xotre  Dame,  has  taken  rank  as  a  masterpiece  of  medi- 
aeval Gothic  imagination. 


LE  PONT  NEUF 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7|  inches  by  7\  inches. 

Le  Pont  Neuf  is  still  one  of  the  most  picturesque  of  Paris  bridges,  though  the  little 
turrets  are  no  longer  there.  The  view  is  taken  from  the  water's  edge.  As 
it  happens,  this  "New  Bridge"  is  the  oldest  bridge  in  Paris;  just  as  in  Oxford 
"New  College"  is  the  oldest  of  them  all. 


CHARLES  MERYON  155 

discouragement  he  destroyed  the  most  magnifi- 
cent series  of  his  plates.  When  we  think  of  the 
scores  of  mediocre  engravers  of  all  kinds,  who, 
without  one  ray  of  imagination,  live  decently 
and  contentedly  by  their  trade,  and  then  of  this 
rare  and  sublime  genius  actually  plowing  deep 
burin  lines  across  his  inspired  work,  because  no 
man  regarded  it;  and  when  we  remember  that 
this  took  place  in  Paris,  in  our  own  enlightened 
nineteenth  century,  it  makes  us  doubt  whether, 
Vafter  all,  we  are  much  better  than  savages  or  / 
•barbarians."  / 

X  Since  Mr.  Hamerton  wrote  the  eloquent  para- 
graph just  quoted,  we  have  had  formal  biographies 
of  Meryon,  and  learned  and  critical  commen- 
taries on  his  etchings,  while  public  museums 
vie  with  wealthy  amateurs  for  their  possession; 
but  all  too  late  for  poor  Meryon!  His  brother 
etcher,  Sir  Seymour  Haden,  who  was  his  senior, 
is  alive  to-day  and  enjoying  the  renown  that  his 
works  have  brought  him;  while  Meryon  "sleeps 
well,"  after  what  surely  was  to  him  "life's  fitful 
fever,"  and  lies  buried  in  the  cemetery  of  the 
asylum  at  Charenton. 

Charles  Meryon  was  born  in  Paris  on  the  23d 
of  November,  1821.  He  was  the  son  of  Charles 
Lewys  Meryon,  an  English  physician.  His  mother 
was  Pierre  Narcisse  Chaspoux,  a  French  ballet 
dancer.  The  father  seems  to  have  neglected  him 
utterly,  while  his  mother  did  all  she  could  for  her 
son — watching  over  his  education  with  tender  care, 
and  at  her  death  leaving  him  20,000  francs. 


156   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

In  his  seventeenth  year  Meryon  entered  the 
Naval  School  at  Brest,  and  after  two  years  of 
study  went  to  sea  as  a  cadet,  and  in  due  time 
rose  to  the  rank  of  lieutenant.  During  the 
seven  years  spent  in  the  Navy  he  visited  New 
'Zealand,  Australia,  and  New  Caledonia,  as  well 
as  the  seaports  of  the  Mediterranean;  and  it 
was  in  1846  that,  owing  to  the  feebleness  of 
his  constitution,  he  resigned  his  commission, 
and,  taking  a  studio  in  the  old  Latin  quarter  of 
Paris,  resolved  to  study  painting.  He  soon  found 
this  career  closed  against  him  by  reason  of  his 
color-blindness,  and  he  did  not  discover  his  true 
vocation  until  his  attention  was  directed  to 
etching  by  Eugene  Blery,  whose  pupil  he  became 
for  six  months.  Blery  worked  somewhat  in  the 
conventional  style  of  De  Boissieu,  and  he  evi- 
dently taught  his  pupil  nothing  except  the  mere 
technique  of  the  process.  Meryon's  real  master 
in  art  was  Reinier  Zeeman,  a  Dutch  etcher  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  whose  views  of  the 
Paris  of  his  day  inspired  our  artist  to  undertake 
the  great  work  of  his  life  —  his  "Eaux  fortes 
sur  Paris." 

At  this  time  Baron  Haussmann,  under  the 
commands  of  Louis  Napoleon,  was  constructing 
his  monotonously  handsome  modern  streets  and 
boulevards  out  of  the  picturesque  labyrinth  of 
old  Paris;  not  reverently  restoring  and  preserv- 
ing, but  ruthlessly  demolishing  and  obliterating; 
and  Meryon's  passionate  artist-soul  was  grieved 
at  a  destruction  which  he  was  powerless  to  pre- 


1>  -O 

C    0> 
O  CC 


22  c 


^)^5 


w 


tt 

H 
P 
X 
<j 

«"T^    2:    ^« 
>C    -C 

"9  >»  i3 

x  ^  s- 

h- 1  _._  s  *i 
H  «  -^  § 

^  ^«3J 
J    c   -^ 
V  cc  >> 

W    a  D"? 

QlH'!:, 

H  -&5     «"§ 

a  -E  »r*j  § 


K 


<P   S-S. 


Bt3  7= 

L_3       «— 

a  - 
si 

u 
5 

g 


N       y    +J   ZS 


"    X 

^^     fll 


^C  .^  T? 
CJ  ^?  *  — 
£  "  JQ 


H  -c 
x&3    o 


CHARLES  MERYON  157 

vent.  Had  those  men  but  known  what  a  rare 
genius  was  among  them,  and  had  they  then  com- 
missioned him  to  do  adequately  and  with  author- 
ity what  he  did  furtively  and  incompletely,  the 
world  would  have  been  the  richer  by  a  completed 
masterpiece,  and  the  precious  life  of  Meryon 
might  have  been  preserved.  But  the  great  oppor- 
tunity was  lost,  and  it  was  amid  discouragement, 
sickness,  and  poverty  that  Meryon  etched  "the 
most  magnificent  series  of  his  plates."  The  en- 
lightened committee  of  the  Salon  refused  admission 
to  these  superb  works;  wealthy  publishers  would 
not  touch  them,  and  the  artist  was  fain  to  leave 
a  few  here  and  there  "on  sale"  among  the  petits 
marchands  of  the  Latin  quarter. 

A  pathetic  story  of  this  period,  never  before 
published,  was  related  to  the  writer  by  Monsieur 
Beillet,  a  patriarchal  old  man,  who,  after  having 
worked  at  the  same  printing-press  for  forty- 
eight  years,  retired  on  a  competency  of  six  francs 
a  day:  "Meryon  came  stealing  into  my  atelier, 
looking  even  more  nervous  and  wild  than  usual, 
and  bringing  with  him  two  sheets  of  paper  and 
the  plate  of  his  *  Abside  de  Notre  Dame.'  *  Mon- 
sieur Beillet,'  said  he,  *I  want  you  to  print  me 
two  proofs  of  this  plate,'  and  added,  timidly,  'I 
cannot  pay  you  till  I  sell  them,  —  don't  refuse 
me!"  "How  much  did  you  charge  him  for  the 
printing?"  I  queried.  "OA,  dix  sous  les  deux." 
(Ten  cents,  that  Meryon  could  not  pay  for  two 
proofs  of  his  loveliest  plate!)  An  exclamation 
of  pity  on  my  part  was  mistakenly  appropri- 


158       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

ated  by  the  practical  old  printer,  for  he  added: 

"Mais  oui,  Monsieur,  —  I  never  got  the  money." 

I    Such  an  accumulation  of  troubles  might  well 

(have  broken  down  a  healthier  mind.     In  a  fit  of 

I  frenzy  he  destroyed  his  finest  plates,  and  peace 

I  only  came  to  him  when  they  laid  him  in  a  lunatic's 

grave.     He  died  on  the  14th  of  February,  1868. 

Our  first  impulse  is  to  be  angry  with  those 
who,  knowing  him  to  be  a  great  artist,  yet  allowed 
him  to  perish;  but  Meryon  was  a  man  whom  it 
was  not  easy  to  befriend;  he  was  morbidly  sus- 
picious and  irritable,  and  would  accept  nothing 
that  looked  like  a  charity. 

Seymour  Haden,  Philippe  Burty,  and  Monsieur 
Niel,  all  tried  to  aid  him,  but  were  repulsed  in 
a  manner  that  would  have  been  inexcusable  in 
a  sane  man.  Sir  Seymour  Haden  writes:  "One 
day,  though  I  knew  the  difficulty  of  approaching 
him,  I  went  to  see  Meryon.  I  found  him  in  a 
little  room,  high  up  on  Montmartre,  scrupu- 
lously clean  and  orderly;  a  bed  in  one  corner,  a 
printing-press  in  another,  a  single  chair  and  a 
small  table  in  another,  and  in  the  fourth  an  easel 
with  a  plate  pinned  against  it,  at  which  he  was 
standing  at  work.  He  did  not  resent  my  visit, 
but,  with  a  courtesy  quite  natural,  offered  me, 
and  apologized  for,  the  single  chair,  and  at  once 
began  to  discuss  the  resources  and  charms  of 
etching.  He  was  also  good  enough  to  allow  me 
to  take  away  with  me  a  few  impressions  of 
his  work,  for  which,  while  his  back  was  turned, 
I  was  no  less  scrupulous  to  leave  upon  the  table 


s_  *->  o> 

.    V    03    O 


*-  c  '>  "" 

H  ja'-.B  3  => 

g  ||l| 

| 'Ml  I 

w  -E?  I  -2  £ 

3     O    O    09    O 
HH       _      n  .S  i-_ 


4)    03 


O  '§^^.3^ 

fH  ft)        g,        t,      ^      4J 

^  5Jilpa.fl 

"     o  J-  1-9  "3    -T 


CHARLES  MERYON  159 

what  I  was  sure  was  more  than  the  dealers  would 
then  give  him  for  them;  and  so  we  parted, 
the  best  of  friends.  But  what  followed  shows 
how,  even  then,  his  mind  was  unhinged.  I  had 
walked  fully  two  miles  in  the  direction  of  Paris, 
and  was  entering  a  shop  in  the  Rue  de  Richelieu, 
when  I  became  aware  that  Meryon,  much  agi- 
tated, was  following  me.  He  said  he  must  have 
back  the  proofs  I  had  bought  of  him;  that  they 
were  of  a  nature  to  compromise  him,  and  from 
what  he  knew  of  'the  etched  work  which  I  called 
my  own/  he  was  determined  I  should  not  take 
them  to  England  with  me!  I,  of  course,  gave 
them  to  him,  and  he  went  his  way." 

The  same  eminent  authority  says:  "The  art  of 
Meryon  stands  alone.  Like  the  work  of  every  true 
genius,  it  resembles  in  no  one  feature  the  work 
of  any  one  else.  His  method  was  this  —  First,  he 
made  not  a  sketch,  but  a  number  of  sketches, 
two  or  three  inches  square,  of  parts  of  his  picture, 
which  he  put  together  and  arranged  into  a  har- 
monious whole.  What  is  singular,  and  a  proof  of 
his  concentrativeness,  is  that  the  result  has  none  of 
the  artificial  character  usual  to  this  kind  of  treat- 
ment, but  that  it  is  always  broad  and  simple,  and 
that  the  poetical  motive  is  never  lost  sight  of." 
Mr.  Hamerton  says:  "His  work  was  sanity  itself," 
—  and  Victor  Hugo  wrote  during  the  artist's 
lifetime:  "These  etchings  are  magnificent  things. 
We  must  not  allow  this  splendid  imagination  to 
be  worsted  in  the  struggle.  Strengthen  him  by 
all  the  encouragements  possible." 


160   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

While  the  renown  of  Meryon  must  always 
rest  upon  the  twelve  principal  plates  of  the  "Paris 
Set,"  yet  his  personality  —  if  not  his  great  art 
—  is  maintained  in  several  prints  of  fantastic  verses 
composed  as  well  as  etched  by  himself.  These 
verses  remind  one  of  the  similar  productions  of 
William  Blake;  but  here  the  parallel  ends,  for 
the  English  artist,  though  always  poor,  lived  a 
happy  life,  and  died  at  a  good  old  age. 

Others  of  his  works  (notably  some  of  the  por- 
traits) were  done  for  bread,  and  the  etcher  evi- 
dently had  little  heart  in  his  work.  But  though 
some  of  those  prints  are  greatly  inferior  to  others, 
yet  everything  from  the  hand  of  this  unique  genius 
is  worthy  of  study. 

Thus  lived,  suffered,  and  died  the  unhappy 
Meryon.  To  him,  of  all  artists,  was  reserved 
the  power  to  make  stone  walls  eloquent.  Rem- 
brandt could  paint  or  etch  the  soul  of  a  man  in 
his  face;  Corot  made  every  landscape  a  poem; 
but  Meryon,  while  giving  exact  pictures  of  the 
buildings  of  his  native  city,  imparted  to  them  at 
the  same  time  his  own  intense  personality  to  a 
degree  never  before  achieved. 

The  style  and  touch  of  any  great  artist  are 
easily  recognized  —  for  example,  the  Italian  Pira- 
nesi,  whose  etchings  of  ancient  Roman  ruins 
have  a  grandiose  splendor  almost  greater  than 
the  buildings  themselves;  but  style  is  a  different 
endowment  from  this  intangible  gift  of  person- 
ality. John  Stuart  Mill  gives  us  an  intellectual 
impersonality;  but  who  can  read  the  Vicar  of 


LA  MORGUE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  9f  by  8|  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Meryon.  This  building —  "The  Doric  little  Morgue"  — 
was  demolished  years  ago.  The  new  Morgue  is  far  away  from  this.  This  etch- 
ing —  one  of  Meryon's  most  powerful  works  —  is  dated  1854.  From  a  tech- 
nical point  of  view  it  is  a  masterpiece,  and  in  it  are  eminently  visible  his  power 
of  instilling  poetry  and  picturesqueness  into  the  most  uninteresting  material. 


LA  POMPE  NOTRE  DAME 

Size  of  the  original  print,  10  by  6J  inches. 


L'ARCHE  DU  PONT  NOTRE  DAME 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7J  by  6  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  Meryon.  La  Pompe  Notre  Dame  is  dated  1852.  L'Arche 
du  Pont  Notre  Dame,  1853.  Beneath  the  arch  are  seen  the  Pont  au  Change 
and  the  Towers  of  the  Palais  de  Justice. 


CHARLES  MERYON  161 

Wakefield  and  not  feel  the  intimate  presence  of 
Oliver  Goldsmith?  Or  the  Essays  of  Elia  without 
thinking  of  Charles  Lamb  more  than  of  his  book? 
Similarly,  the  man  Meryon  seems  present  in 
every  line  that  he  drew,  and  now  that  he  is  at 
rest,  posterity  will  keep  his  memory  green. 


MAXIME  LALANNE 

PAINTER-ETCHER 

first  exhibition  of  Lalanne's  etchings  took 
place  in  Paris  in  1874.  The  second,  in  the 
same  year,  at  Bordeaux  (where  the  artist  was 
born  in  1827).  The  third  was  at  Marseilles  in 
1875;  and  a  very  full  exhibition  of  etchings  and 
drawings  was  in  preparation  for  London  in  1886, 
but  the  project  was  frustrated  by  the  artist's 
death  in  that  year. 

The  proofs  which  Lalanne  himself  had  selected 
for  exhibition  in  London  were  purchased  from  his 
widow  and  were  exhibited  in  New  York  in  1889. 

Lalanne's  etchings  are  numbered  according  to 
Beraldi's  catalogue,  which  is  identical  with 
Lalanne's  own  numbering  of  his  works.  His 
arrangement  is  sometimes  a  little  arbitrary  as  to 
their  chronological  sequence,  and  he  also  saw  fit 
to  omit  and  disown  a  few  plates  which  did  not 
satisfy  him;  but  we  follow  a  safe  guide  in  follow- 
ing the  artist  himself. 

Maxime  Lalanne's  influence  on  landscape  etch- 
ing has  been  very  great  and  also  very  salutary. 
His  strongest  influence  on  his  contemporaries 
arose  from  his  habitual  use  of  the  "frank,  open 
line"  at  a  time  when  other  etchers  (and  among 
them  Charles  Jacque  and  Samuel  Palmer)  were 

162 


RUE  DES  MARA1OUSETS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  9^  by  6|  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Maxime  Lalanne.  This  is  one  of  Lalanne's  strongest  etchings. 
The  spirit  of  the  place  is  seized  at  once,  and  presented  in  a  masterly  manner. 
The  drawing  of  the  houses,  as  they  incline  backward,  could  hardly  be  bettered. 
It  was  the  Paris  custom,  three  or  four  centuries  ago,  when  building  the  front 
of  a  city  house,  to  make  it  slope  backward. 


A   BORDEAUX    (VUE   GENERALE) 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8|  by  llf  inches. 


VUE  PRISE  DU  PONT  SAINT-MICHEL   (LE  PONT  NEUF  ET 
LE  LOUVRE) 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7|  by  11 J  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  Maxime  Lalanne.  In  these  two  plates  the  gradation  of 
tone,  from  the  rich  blacks  in  the  foreground  to  the  delicate  grey  of  the  dis- 
tance, is  beautifully  rendered,  and  is  done  in  pure  line. 


MAXIME  LALANNE  163 

still  hampered  with  reminiscences  of  the  labori- 
ous methods  of  the  line  engravers. 

His  treatise  on  Etching,  published  in  1866, 
still  maintains  its  position  as  the  standard  text- 
book for  the  etcher.  It  was  translated  into  Eng- 
lish by  Mr.  S.  R.  Koehler  of  the  Boston  Museum 
of  Fine  Arts,  and  published  by  Estes  and  Lauriat 
of  Boston. 

Another  valuable  book  by  Lalanne  is  his  work 
on  Charcoal  Drawing.  He  was  himself  the  most 
eminent  artist  of  his  time  in  this  species  of  work, 
and  he  also  maintained  a  distinguished  rank  as 
a  painter  in  oils. 

Our  space  cannot  admit  the  long  list  of  medals 
and  other  distinctions  which  he  has  won.  They 
include  a  title  of  nobility  from  the  late  King  of 
Portugal  (who  was  himself  a  good  etcher),  also 
a  medal  for  both  painting  and  etching  from  the 
Philadelphia  Centennial  Exhibition,  and  finally 
the  decoration  of  the  Legion  of  Honor. 

All  of  his  distinctions  are  detailed  in  the  offi- 
cial Archives  de  la  Legion  d'Honneur,  where  they 
can  be  seen. 

But  it  is  through  his  etchings  that  Maxime 
Lalanne's  name  is  likely  to  live.  There  is  in 
them  a  grace  and  elegance  that  no  other  artist 
has  achieved.  His  drawing  is  always  correct 
and  true,  and  he  had  no  sympathy  with  the  ugly 
and  the  repulsive  —  even  though  it  was  sometimes 
practised  by  such  masters  as  Legros,  Bracque- 
mond,  and  Rembrandt  himself.  Lalanne  con- 
fined himself  within  the  safe  limits  of  the  "frank, 


164        THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

open  line,"  and  his  work  remains  admirable  so 
far  as  it  goes.  He  did  not  enliven  it  with  more  or 
less  successful  experiments  and  innovations.  He 
was  not  a  chercheur  like  Felix  Buhot  or  Henri 
Guerard.  But  Alexander  Pope  was  a  famous 
poet,  although  he  refrained  from  such  wild  flights 
as  were  afterwards  taken  by  Shelley,  or  Brown- 
ing, or  Walt  Whitman! 

It  is  a  common  thing,  but  most  unfair,  to  con- 
demn a  work  of  art  for  the  lack  of  those  features 
or  qualities  which  the  artist  had  never  intended 
to  put  into  it;  and  if  we  take  Lalanne  within  his 
own  limits,  we  will  find  his  work  thoroughly 
good  and  right. 


CO 


-q  =! 

Ja 


II 

|t 

1-3    4-T 


EH    3  J*  -^ 

<j  «r§  J 


•'4 


PORTRAIT  OF  WHISTLER 

From  the  drawing  by  Paul  Rajon 
Size  of  the  original  drawing,  9j  by  7  inches. 

In  this  excellent  portrait  the  white  lock  of  hair,  of  which  Whistler  was  so  proud, 
is  well  in  evidence,  also  the  single  eyeglass. 


WHISTLER  AS  AN  ETCHER 
Reprinted,  by  permission,  from  "  The  Outlook19 

IN  introducing  the  subject  of  Whistler  as  an 
etcher  I  cannot  do  so  better  than  by  citing 
the  opinion  of  the  man  whom  I  believe  to  be  the 
best  living  authority  on  the  subject.  I  mean 
Joseph  Pennell,  the  American  artist  and  critic, 
who  was  the  stanch  friend  of  Whistler  to  the  end, 
and  who,  in  collaboration  with  his  distinguished 
wife,  has  written  a  biography  of  the  master 
which  must  prove  to  be  the  standard  for  all  time 
to  come,  although  other  biographies  are  also  in 
preparation.  "There  is  no  man  so  fit  for  the  sea 
as  a  sailor,"  and  there  is  no  man  so  competent 
to  write  on  the  etchings  of  Whistler  as  is  a  brother 
etcher,  who  not  only  knows  fine  etching  when  he 
sees  it,  but  goes  beyond  the  intelligent  outsider 
by  also  knowing  just  why,  from  a  technical  and 
constructive  point  of  view,  the  etching  is  so  sig- 
nally good.  Mr.  PennelPs  superlatives  in  wjit- 
ing  of  Whistler's  etchings  are  not  the  ravings  of 
some  irresponsible  enthusiast,  but  the  words  of 
a  recognized  critical  authority. 

Here,  then,  is  a  condensed  extract  of  what  Mr. 
Pennell  has  written  in  a  London  magazine  on  the 
subject  of  Whistler's  etchings:  "Whistler  was 
the  greatest  etcher  and  the  most  accomplished 

165 


WHISTLER  AS  AN  ETCHER  167 

ful  example  of  absolute  loyalty  to  a  great  man, 
just  because  they  knew  so  well  how  great  an 
artist  he  was.  Although  very  few  people  could 
avoid  quarreling  with  him,  with  the  Pennells 
"the  King  could  do  no  wrong,"  and  I  remember 
that  when  Whistler,  as  was  his  habit,  arrived  an 
hour  or  so  late  for  dinner  at  their  house  in  Lon- 
don, not  a  word  of  reproach  from  hostess  or  host 
was  ever  expressed  or  implied;  although  we  cannot 
blame  the  French  servant,  Augustine,  when,  on 
admitting  the  honored  guest  upon  such  an  occa- 
sion, she  shook  her  finger  at  him  and  said, 
"Ah,  Monsieur  Veestlaire,  vous  avez  gate  mon  diner, 
vous  savez!"  A  dozen  such  dinners  might  have 
been  spoiled  without  a  word  or  a  look  of  reproach 
from  one  or  other  of  the  two  accomplished  art 
critics  who  had  invited  their  hero  to  dine. 

I  must  relate  a  quaint  incident  to  illustrate 
this  immense  admiration  of  one  artist  for  the 
work  of  another. 

Having  shaken  hands  with  Mr.  Pennell  on 
arriving  at  his  house,  I  said  to  him:  "You  have  a 
hand  like  Whistler's,  very  delicate  and  frail,  but 
your  hand  is  bigger  than  his  because  you  are  a 
much  bigger  man."  To  this,  Mr.  Pennell,  wil- 
fully misunderstanding  me,  exclaimed:  "A  bigger 
man  than  Whistler  —  oh,  I  wish  to  heaven  I 
were!" 

The  mere  list  of  books  or  of  detached  articles 
on  Whistler  is  already  a  long  one,  and  more  are 
forthcoming.  Even  writers  who  scorned  his  work 
during  the  years  when  he  was  producing  it  have 


168   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

now  rushed  in  to  proclaim  that  he  was  a  great 
master.  This  state  of  things  had  already  begun 
before  his  death,  and  Whistler,  who  was  always 
an  aggressive  and  valiant  fighter,  used  to  say  to 
critics  of  this  sort:  "If  you  now  find  my  works 
to  be  masterpieces,  why  were  not  these  same  things 
masterpieces  long  years  ago  when  you  neglected 
them  totally  or  when  you  ridiculed  them?" 

The  serious  student  of  the  best  original  etchings 
is  often  confronted  with  a  dangerous  obstacle 
in  the  form  of  the  deceiving  counterfeits  which 
have  been  fabricated  on  the  masterworks  of  the 
[  art.  Rembrandt's  etchings  were  shamefully  and 
/  shamelessly  copied  by  dishonest  anonymous  etchers 
even  during  his  own  lifetime  and  by  later  forgers 
for  two  centuries,  and  within  the  last  fifty  years 
some  deceiving  counterfeits  have  been  made  of 
the  etchings  of  such  masters  as  Meryon,  Millet, 
and  Seymour  Haden.  But  no  man  has  ever 
successfully  counterfeited  an  etching  by  Whistler 
—  for  the  good  reason  that  no  man  could.  The 
master's  exquisitely  delicate  and  intensely  per- 
sonal style  and  touch  stand  hopelessly  above  and 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  counterfeiter.  If  such  a 
falsification  were  attempted  by  the  etching  process, 
the  result  would  surely  remind  us  of  Dickens's  de- 
scription of  the  wig  of  Mrs.  Sairey  Gamp,  which 
was  so  obviously  an  imitation  of  natural  human 
hair  "that  it  could  hardly  be  called  false."  Yet 
even  with  this  protection  to  collectors,  based 
on  Whistler's  unattainable  superiority  of  style 
and  technique,  there  is  still  some  danger  that 


WHISTLER  AS  AN  ETCHER  169 

passably  good  imitations  of  the  etchings  might 
be  made  by  some  mechanical  process  founded  on 
photography,  although  such  imitations  would  be 
speedily  detected  by  any  expert. 

James  McNeill  Whistler  was  born  on  the  10th 
of  July,  1834,  in  Worthen  Street,  Lowell,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  he  died  at  Chelsea,  London,  on 
the  17th  of  July,  1903.  He  really  was  baptized 
with  the  name  of  James  Abbot,  but  he  repudiated 
the  latter  name,  and  substituted  for  it  the  maiden 
name  of  his  mother.  His  father,  Major  George 
W.  Whistler,  was  an  eminent  engineer  in  the  United 
States  army,  and  it  was  he  who  was  the  real 
designer  and  constructor  of  the  first  Russian 
railway,  which  runs  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Mos- 
cow, although,  as  so  often  happens,  he  was  by 
no  means  the  chief  beneficiary  from  his  own  work. 
Major  Whistler,  having  lost  his  first  wife  —  who 
left  him  one  daughter,  the  late  Lady  Seymour 
Haden — married  Miss  McNeill,  a  Southern  lady, 
who  was  the  mother  of  our  artist.  At  the  age 
of  ten  young  Whistler  was  living  in  St.  Peters- 
burg with  his  father  and  mother,  and  I  must 
quote  an  extract  from  his  mother's  diary  of  that 
time,  which  shows  how  true  it  is  that  "the  child's 
the  father  of  the  man."  She  writes:  "While 
visiting  the  Czar's  palace  we  were  allowed,  as  a 
special  favor,  to  see  some  pictures  of  feathered 
fowl  which  were  made  by  Peter  the  Great.  I 
thought  they  were  beautiful  —  but  our  Jimmie 
had  the  impudence  to  laugh  at  them."  Poor  fellow! 
he  continued  to  laugh  at  the  productions  of  other 


170   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

artists  all  his  life  long.  Later  we  find  Whistler 
a  cadet  at  West  Point.  That  was  more  than 
fifty  years  ago;  yet  his  memory  is  still  a  potent 
memory  there.  His  engaging  personality  and 
bright  wit  made  him  a  favorite  among  his  comrades, 
but  he  was  found  to  be  deficient  in  his  studies, 
especially  in  chemistry,  and  the  authorities  had 
to  dismiss  him.  Long  years  afterward  he  gave  his 
own  whimsical  version  of  this  dismissal:  "I  would 
have  been  a  United  States  officer  to-day  except 
for  a  difference  of  opinion  between  the  authorities 
and  myself;  they  maintained  that  silicon  was  a 
mineral,  while  I  insisted  that  it  was  a  gas." 

While  on  the  tempting  subject  of  Whistler's 
witticisms  I  must  relate  one  of  his  latest  and 
least  known.  During  his  last  visit  to  Paris  he 
was  making  a  call  on  a  lady  of  exalted  rank,  and 
she  said  to  him,  "You  are  well  acquainted  with 
King  Edward  of  England."  "Well,  no,"  said 
Whistler,  "not  personally."  "Why,"  said  the 
lady,  "his  Majesty  was  speaking  to  me  in  London 
recently,  and  he  said  he  knew  you  well."  "Oh," 
said  Whistler,  "that  was  only  his  brag.'" 

Whistler's  very  first  etching  was,  character- 
istically enough,  the  cause  of  storms  and  tempests; 
and  then  began  his  life-long  habit,  which  recalls 
to  us  the  prophecy  concerning  Ishmael  of  old, 
"His  hand  shall  be  against  every  man,  and  every 
man's  hand  against  him."  After  his  dismissal 
from  West  Point  he  found  employment  in  the 
United  States  Coast  Survey  at  Washington,  where 
the  director  ordered  him  to  etch  a  plate  for  the 


BILLINGSGATE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  6  by  8f  inches. 


PUTNEY  BRIDGE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7|  by  llf  inches. 

Two  characteristic  London  scenes  etched  by  Whistler.  The  "  Billingsgate  "  was 
done  in  the  year  1859  and  the  "  Putney  Bridge  "  about  twenty  years  later.  Fine 
proofs  of  Whistler's  etchings  have,  of  late,  attained  to  prices  as  great  as  those 
of  the  works  of  any  master,  old  or  modern. 


THE  ADAM  AND  EVE  TAVERN,  OLD  CHELSEA 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7  by  llf  inches. 


THE  RIVA  — NUMBER  ONE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7|  by  llf  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  Whistler.  "The  Adam  and  Eve  Tavern"  was  etched  in 
1879,  and  is  especially  interesting  inasmuch  as  it  marks  the  transition  by 
Whistler  from  his  early  to  his  later  manner  —  that  of  the  Venice  series,  of 
which  "The  Riva"  is  a  characteristic  example. 


WHISTLER  AS  AN  ETCHER  171 

guidance  of  marines.  He  had  no  chance  to  make 
a  work  of  art  of  this  plate,  for  it  was  a  slavishly 
accurate  picture  of  one  part  of  the  coast  line. 
The  young  Whistler  etched  this  uncongenial  sub- 
ject very  accurately,  although  in  a  perfunctory 
and  "tight"  manner,  but  he  "let  himself  go"  by 
decorating  the  sky  of  Uncle  Sam's  formal  plate 
with  a  series  of  fantastic  little  heads  which  were 
spun  from  his  own  imagination.  The  bureau- 
cratic authorities  were  shocked,  the  plate  was 
confiscated,  and  the  too  imaginative  young  etcher 
was  cashiered. 

At  about  the  age  of  twenty  Whistler  drifted 
to  Paris,  and  it  was  there  that  the  budding  master 
first  "found  himself."  Paris,  indeed,  has  for  long 
years  been  the  mother  and  the  nurse  of  artists. 
Among  the  French,  art  in  any  form  is  a  very 
serious  matter  indeed;  while,  in  comparison,  both 
in  England  and  America  art  is  generally  looked 
on  as  a  trifling,  non-essential,  outside  matter,  and 
one  that  any  educated  person  may  notice  or 
not,  as  he  thinks  fit.  In  this  it  may  be  compared 
to  the  religion  of  some  of  us  —  a  sentimental, 
idealistic  emotion,  and  one  that  we  may  take  on 
if  we  are  in  the  humor,  or  lay  off  if  our  humor 
drifts  the  other  way. 

The  incurable  refractory  bent  which  so  often 
caused  trouble  to  Whistler  as  a  man  was  alto- 
gether favorable  to  his  development  as  an  artist. 
It  was  simply  impossible  for  his  independent  nature 
to  shut  his  eyes  and  tamely  swallow  rules  and 
methods  which  were  not  of  his  own  making.  It 


172   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

was  this  intransigeant  spirit,  combined  with  his 
own  inherent  genius,  that  made  him  the  thoroughly 
original  master  that  he  was.  He  was  a  master 
in  a  double  sense  —  first,  through  his  great  pic- 
tures, and,  secondly,  through  the  dominating 
influence  which  these  pictures  exercised  on  so 
many  other  artists  throughout  the  civilized  world. 
Many  of  these  men  would  fiercely  deny  that  they 
were  imitating  Whistler;  but  they  were,  whether 
they  knew  it  or  not.  Thus,  when  a  recent  exhi- 
bition of  new  etchings  was  held  in  London,  the 
Saturday  Review,  in  noticing  it,  said  that  these 
etchings  were  "mainly  penny -Whistlers,"  and, 
just  because  they  were  more  or  less  gross  imita- 
tions of  the  style  and  method  of  the  master,  they 
were  of  no  more  value  artistically  than  a  child's 
penny  whistle. 

It  was  in  Paris,  at  the  age  of  twenty -four  and 
in  the  year  1858,  that  Whistler  published  his  first 
series  of  etchings  —  the  "French  Set,"  as  it  is 
now  called.  There  were  thirteen  in  the  set,  and 
the  price  for  it  was  fifty  francs,  or  ten  dollars. 
Happy  were  the  few  enlightened  Frenchmen  who 
invested  fifty  francs  in  the  modest  little  portfolio 
of  the  young  and  unknown  etcher.  If  they  or  their 
"heirs,  administrators,  and  assigns"  still  possess 
them,  they  may  have  the  satisfaction  of  know- 
ing that  they  could  sell  them  at  nearly  a  hun- 
dred times  the  price  which  they  originally  cost. 
The  "French  Set"  included  some  veritable  mas- 
terpieces—  such  as  the  "Kitchen,"  the  "Mustard 
Woman,"  the  "Vieille  aux  Loques,"  and  the 


THE  VELVET  DRESS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  9g  by  6-|  inches. 

From  the  dry-point  by  Whistler.  This  is  a  portrait  of  Mrs.  F.  R.  Leyland,  and  is, 
according  to  Joseph  Pennell,  a  study  for  the  portrait  in  oil,  which  Whistler 
painted  later;  but  in  the  painting  she  wears  a  gown  of  pink  and  white,  not  of 
velvet.  The  folds  of  the  dress  are  indicated  by  a  very  few  touches,  and  the 
hair  and  ruff  are  drawn  with  peculiar  delicacy.  It  was  done  in  1873  and  is 
very  rare,  as  are  all  the  dry-point  portraits  of  Whistler's  "  middle  period." 


H  £*  St: 

co  H^-S  ;g  g, 

W    00    .      3    "* 

*  *?£*£ 


C  S._ 

•C   V    OM 

&e  -.tJ 

e  £ 


u 

w  .  . 

Q  -3    «j  5    - 

OS  •+-'  •-* 

j  .9  S  1"^ 

S  &c'o  oj  S 

^  -r1    X  CJ    M 


uu  O    <u    s 

'S  'P-S-S 

Sblj1 

-a-o    .^ 


c« 


S> 


o  '    «  a 

-,-O.2  S 

J-g  ?  o 

^  s^s: 
^ 

B-^-jj 

__«  _Q   2 
>» 


^.^ 


5  fe 


**-^    aj 

$  °J3 

0    _   *» 
4>    C  *w 

'a.2O 

bX> 

S 

i     en 

OJ     Bl 

•  C  o>     . 

J|P 
o«  ^-j5 

W 

'-S 

S 

CD 

_>;, 

.S    <U 

3 

"S 

Q 

rfl-.-^ 
«b'H 

.S 

*2 

aj 
^ 

JS 

a 

z 

< 
J) 

K-1 

>i 

-°  *; 

OO  ^ 

i^j 

«e 

>» 

«9 

tn 
C 

S 
5 

•h> 

a 
3 

w 
o 

^j    tn 

•g| 

&>>• 

"rt    >> 

"3  w  o 
°^  S 

"S    «<-!       W 
§°^ 

y; 

a 

s-° 

'§)   01 

O 

-V 

3 

cu 
O 

"1 

& 

S 

aj 

'S.| 

"o 

.2 

_c 

c 

c 

^ 

u 

p 

fH    ft 

. 

i* 

tX 

a 

*J    ' 

fe« 

'c 

.;£ 

o> 

N    O 

cc^ 


s.S'S 
Sg^§ 


WHISTLER  AS  AN  ETCHER  173 

"Street  in  Saverne,"  which  last-named  print  must 
be  about  the  first  of  Whistler's  magnificent  series 
of  night  scenes,  or  Nocturnes  as  he  called  them. 
At  about  the  same  period  he  produced  the  "Rag 
Shop"  and  the  two  charming  portraits  of  French 
children,  "Bibi  Lalouette"  and  "Bibi  Valentin." 

From  Paris  Whistler  went  to  London  and  made 
his  home  with  Sir  Seymour  Haden,  who  was 
then  an  eminent  surgeon,  but  who  afterward 
attained  so  much  wider  fame  as  an  etcher  of  land- 
scapes. It  was  while  he  was  living  there  with 
his  half-sister  and,  shall  we  say,  his  AaZf-brother- 
in-law,  that  Whistler  etched  most  of  the  magnifi- 
cent plates  which  are  known  as  the  "Thames  Set." 
It  consisted  of  sixteen  etchings,  and  although 
he  did  very  beautiful  things  in  later  years,  my 
own  conviction  is  that  the  Thames  Set  includes 
several  of  his  supreme  achievements.  This  opin- 
ion is  fortified  by  that  of  Mr.  Pennell.  In  writing 
of  one  of  them,  the  "Black  Lion  Wharf,"  he  calls 
it  "one  of  the  greatest  engraved  plates  that  has 
been  produced  in  modern  times,"  and  he  adds, 
"I  would  even  say  that  it  is  the  greatest  etching 
of  modern  times  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that 
it  is  but  one  of  a  set."  Mr.  Pennell  goes  on  to 
commend  other  prints  of  the  series,  such  as  the 
"Forge,"  and  the  "Limeburner,"  and  he  adds, 
"This  series  alone  is  enough  to  win  immortality 
for  any  man." 

Mere  verbal  description  of  a  picture  cannot  be 
otherwise  than  unsatisfying,  but,  fortunately  for 
Americans  in  general  and  for  New  Yorkers  in 


174   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

particular,  one  of  the  very  best  collections  of 
Whistler's  etchings  is  on  free  exhibition  to 
every  one  in  New  York.  It  can  be  visited 
at  the  Public  Library,  where  the  very  com- 
petent curator,  Mr.  Frank  Weitenkampf,  will 
show  to  visitors  this  magnificent  collection,  which 
was  formed  by  the  late  Samuel  P.  A  very  and 
donated  by  him  to  the  Public  Library.  No 
amount  of  money  could  duplicate  it  to-day;  this 
could  be  done  only  in  one  way,  and  that  is  the 
way  by  which  Napoleon  Bonaparte  enriched  the 
gallery  of  the  Louvre.  He  first  conquered  nearly 
all  the  nations  of  Europe,  England  excepted,  and 
he  then  carried  off  their  finest  art  treasures  to 
Paris.  But  this  high-handed  operation  can  never 
be  repeated,  and  Mr.  Avery  was  a  man  of  peace. 
He  already  knew  Whistler  when  the  latter  was  a 
merry,  harum-scarum  young  fellow  in  Paris,  who 
took  little  care  of  the  masterpieces  he  was  pro- 
ducing. In  those  early  and  happy-go-lucky  years 
Whistler  would  etch  some  great  plate,  and,  not 
having  the  money  to  pay  for  the  printing  of  a 
sufficient  edition  of  proofs  from  it,  he  would  pay 
for  perhaps  half  a  dozen.  Then  the  etched  copper 
would  drift  into  the  mysterious  limbo  whither 
all  lost  things  disappear  and  whence  they  never 
return,  or  else  —  as  plates  of  copper  cost  money 
—  Whistler  would  have  the  surface  of  the  plate 
planed  off  and  use  the  old  copper  for  a  new  etch- 
ing. It  was  in  these  earlier  years  that  Mr.  Avery 
got  possession  of  such  rarities  as  the  dry-point 
portraits  of  Riault  the  wood-engraver,  and  of 


THE  DOORWAY 

Size  of  the  original  print,  ll£  by  8  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Whistler.  This  superb  etching  is  one  of  the  "Venice  Set," 
issued  in  1880;  and  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful.  It  has  now  become  very  scarce 
and  very  costly. 


•s-  a 


PL| 


d  3 


S.i 

03 


ll 

II 


oo 

1] 


E"1     F^M     03 


WHISTLER  AS  AN  ETCHER  175 

"Jo,"  the  latter  a  beautiful  portrait  of  a  young 
girl.  These  two  prints  are  now  absolutely  unpro- 
curable, as  is  many  another  of  which  the  noble- 
hearted  Samuel  P.  Avery  has  made  a  free  gift 
for  the  use  of  his  fellow-citizens  in  New  York 
and  for  the  whole  nation. 

With  regard  to  Whistler's  etchings,  after  twenty 
years  of  useful  service  Mr.  Wedmore's  book  is 
likely  to  be  superseded  partly  by  two  exhaustive 
catalogues  of  Whistler's  etchings,  both  of  them 
compiled  by  competent  New  York  authorities. 
Mr.  Howard  Mansfield's  handsome  book  was  pub- 
lished in  1909,  by  the  Caxton  Club  of  Chicago,  and 
Mr.  E.  G.  Kennedy's,  which  was  issued  by  the 
Grolier  Club  in  New  York,  in  1910.  Mr.  Ken- 
nedy's book,  in  particular,  is  a  monument  of 
patient  and  intelligent  labor.  I  believe  that  no 
man  living  can  realize  more  than  I  can  the  im- 
mense amount  of  patient  research  which  has 
enabled  Mr.  Kennedy,  apart  from  his  volume  of 
text,  to  give  to  the  subscribers  three  portfolios  of 
reproductions  including  every  one  of  Whistler's 
plates,  and  not  only  that,  but  to  give  us  a  separate 
picture  of  every  one  of  the  different  states  of  each 
plate.  This,  I  think,  must  be  the  final  authorita- 
tive word  on  Whistler's  etchings. 

Most  of  the  plates  of  the  Thames  Set  were 

fetched  in  the  year  1859,  but  —  "O  fools  and 
blind!"  -no  publisher  would  touch  them  until 
f  twelve  years  later,  in  the  year  1871.  All  this 
is  only  a  modern  repetition  of  the  action  of  the 
ancient  people,  who  first  persecuted  and  stoned 


(their   prophets    and   afterwards   built   sepulchers 
/  in  their  honor. 

The  copper  plates  of  the  sixteen  Thames  etch- 
ings were  destroyed  years  ago,  so  that  no  more 
proofs  from  them  can  ever  be  printed;  but  how 
these  beautiful  things  could  have  remained  neg- 
lected for  twelve  years  is  still  an  unaccountable 
thing. 

Besides  the  two  sets  of  etchings  already  men- 
tioned other  sets  were  to  follow,  but  in  addition 
to  these  Whistler  continued  to  produce  detached 
etchings  of  high  artistic  value.  About  the  year 
1870  his  method  underwent  a  radical  change. 
He  temporarily  discarded  etching  proper  —  where 
the  lines  of  the  plate  are  corroded  or  "bitten" 
with  an  acid  —  and  took  up  dry-point,  a  process 
in  which  the  copper  plate  is  worked  upon  direct 
and  without  any  "biting."  Whistler's  dry-points 
are  characterized  by  extreme  delicacy  and  refine- 
ment. Of  necessity  they  are  very  rare,  because 
a  plate  thus  prepared  wears  out  very  quickly  in 
the  printing.  In  the  case  of  some  very  delicately 
cut  dry-points  not  more  than  half  a  dozen  fine 
proofs  could  be  obtained.  Whistler  was  equally 
master  of  the  dry-point  and  the  etching  method 
whether  he  was  making  portraits  such  as  those 
of  the  Leyland  family  or  depicting  some  fascina- 
ting and  elusive  view  of  the  Thames  at  London, 
the  river  that  he  loved  so  faithfully. 

One  of  his  views  on  the  Thames  deserves  special  t 
mention  because  it  was,  in  style,  the  precursor  of 
the  two  magnificent  "Venice  Sets"  which  were 


DORDRECHT 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5f  by  8|  inches. 


AMSTERDAM,  ETCHED   FROM  THE  TOLHUIS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5|  by  8|  inches. 

From  the  etching  and  the  dry-point  by  Whistler.  "Amsterdam,  Etched  from  the 
Tolhuis,"  was  the  first  of  Whistler's  Dutch  plates  —  made  probably  on  his 
first  journey  to  Holland.  It  was  done  in  1863.  It  is  interesting  to  note  how, 
even  in  those  early  years,  his  style  was  unmistakably  his  own.  Dordrecht  was 
etched  just  twenty-one  years  after  the  Amsterdam- Etched  from  the  Tolhuis  —  in 
1884  —  but  the  same  "economy  of  means"  is  visible  in  both  plates. 


PRICE'S  CANDLE-WORKS 

Size  of  the  original  print.  5|  by  8|  inches. 


THE  THAMES  TOWARD  ERITH 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5f  by  8f  inches. 

From  the  dry-points  by  Whistler.  Price's  Candle-Works  are  at  Battersea.  Both 
this  and  The  Thames  toward  Erith  are  very  rare.  Writing  in  1900,  Joseph  Pen- 
nell  said  of  this  impression  of  The  Thames  toward  Erith,  "This  is  the  first  good 
proof  I  have  ever  seen  of  this  very  rare  plate.  It  was  not  shown  —  we  could 
not  get  it  —  for  the  London  memorial  exhibition." 


WHISTLER  AS  AN  ETCHER  177 

to  follow.  I  mean  the  "Adam  and  Eve  Tavern, 
Old  Chelsea."  It  was  etched,  not  dry-pointed, 
and  was  wrought  in  a  manner  then  new  to  him, 
but  which  he  afterward  continued  to  practise  to 
the  end  of  his  life.  In  the  "Adam  and  Eve"  the 
innovation  is  the  short  and  broken  character  of 
the  lines.  In  it,  as  well  as  in  the  succeeding 
Venice  etchings,  the  result  is  an  effect  of  the  most 
charming  vivacity  and  freshness.  Whistler  hated 
dulness  in  every  form.  The  man,  the  artist, 
the  writer,  was  never  dull.  Whistler  couldn't  be! 
After  the  Venice  etchings  came  views  in  Holland 
and  in  France,  as  well  as  a  series  of  little  plates 
depicting  war-ships  on  the  occasion  of  Queen 
Victoria's  jubilee.  These  later  plates  of  his  are 
still  almost  unknown  to  the  public.  For  many 
years  before  his  death  he  printed  his  own  proofs 
because  no  outside  printer  could  satisfy  him,  and 
after  he  died  his  heiress  and  her  advisers  decided 
that  never  again  should  a  proof  from  any  plate 
of  his  be  printed  by  another  hand.  I  think  that 
this  was  a  most  pious  and  wise  decision,  made  to 
do  honor  to  the  memory  of  the  fastidious  and 
exquisite  artist. 

It  is  a  comfort  to  know  that  the  greater  part 
of  Whistler's  works  are  owned  in  America,  and 
in  America  we  have  the  most  serious  and  most 
accomplished  students  of  the  master.  I  must 
here  relate  an  extraordinary  illustration  of  this. 
Mr.  Charles  L.  Freer,  of  Detroit,  whose  precious 
collection  of  Whistler's  works  will  be  given  to 
the  Nation,  was  examining,  at  his  home,  some 


178   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

unfinished  trial  proofs  of  Whistler's  lithographs. 
In  Mr.  Freer 's  company  was  an  eminent  profes- 
sional artist.  Mr.  Freer  pointed  out  to  him  what 
he  thought  to  be  a  slightly  false  line  on  one  of 
the  prints.  "Pooh!"  said  the  artist,  "Whistler 
will  never  trouble  himself  to  correct  a  trifle  like 
that."  "But  I  am  sure"  said  Mr.  Freer,  "that 
Whistler  will  never  allow  that  line  to  remain  as 
it  now  is."  When  the  lithograph  was  definitely 
published,  the  defective  line  had  been  corrected 
by  the  master,  although  he  had  heard  not  a  word 
about  the  matter. 

It  may  be  an  audacious  thing  for  me  to  venture 
to  say,  but  I  think  Whistler  made  a  mistake  when, 
late  in  life,  he  adopted  the  system  of  cutting  off 
every  shred  of  margin  from  his  proofs  —  except 
a  little  tab  which  he  left  in  one  spot  below,  and 
which  bore  his  mystical  signature  in  the  form 
of  a  sort  of  butterfly.  This  leaves  the  print 
itself  unprotected  from  any  little  accidental  abra- 
sion of  the  edges,  and  the  sight  of  the  etching 
when  the  margins  are  all  cut  away  has  the  same 
unpleasant  effect  on  me  as  has  the  sight  of  the 
finger-tips  of  a  person  who  has  the  little  vice  of 
biting  his  nails.  However,  Whistler,  in  matters  of 
taste,  was  very  apt  to  be  most  refined  and  correct. 
His  "Propositions,"  on  the  small  dimensions  to 
which  an  etching  should  be  limited,  are  here  re- 
printed from  his  famous  book,  "The  Gentle  Art  of 
Making  Enemies  " ;  and  I  agree  with  it  all  except  his 
pronouncement  that  the  four  blank  margins  of  the 
print  should  be  mercilessly  cut  away. 


WHISTLER  AS  AN  ETCHER  179 


PROPOSITIONS  BY  MR.  WHISTLER 

I.  That  in  Art  it  is  criminal  to  go  beyond  the  means 
used  in  its  exercise. 

II.  That  the  space  to  be  covered  should  always  be  in 
proper  relation  to  the  means  used  for  covering  it. 

III.  That  in  etching,  the  means  used,  or  the  instrument 
employed,  being  the  finest  possible  point,  the  space  to  be 
covered  should  be  small  in  proportion. 

IV.  That  all  attempts  to  overstep  the  limits  insisted 
upon  by  such  proportions  are   inartistic  thoroughly,  and 
tend  to  reveal  the  paucity  of  the  means  used,  instead  of 
concealing  the  same,  as  required  by  Art  in  its  refinement. 

V.  That  the  huge  plate,  therefore,  is  an  offense  —  its 
undertaking  an  unbecoming  display  of  determination  and 
ignorance  —  its  accomplishment  a  triumph  of  unthinking 
earnestness    and    uncontrollable    energy  —  endowments    of 
the  "duffer." 

VI.  That  the  custom  of  "Remarque"  emanates  from 
the  amateur,  and  reflects  his  foolish  facility  beyond  the 
border  of  his  picture,  thus  testifying  to  his  unscientific 
sense  of  its  dignity. 

VII.  That  it  is  odious. 

VIII.  That,  indeed,  there  should  be  no  margin  on  the 
proof  to  receive  such  "Remarque." 

IX.  That  the  habit  of  margin,  again,  dates  from  the 
outsider,  and  continues  with  the  collector  in  his  unreason- 
ing connoisseurship  —  taking  curious  pleasure  in  the  quan- 
tity of  paper. 

X.  That,  the  picture  ending  where  the  frame  begins, 
and  in  the  case  of  etching  the  white  mount  being  inevitably, 
because  of  its  color,  the  frame,  the  picture  thus  extends 
itself  irrelevantly  through  the  margin  to  the  mount. 

XI.  That  wit  of  this  kind  would  leave  six  inches  of  raw 
canvas  between  the  painting  and  its  gold  frame,  to  delight 
the  purchaser  with  the  quality  of  the  cloth. 


180   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

It  was  greatly  his  own  fault  that  for  long  years 
Whistler  did  not  win  the  recognition  which  was 
his  due.  He  loved  to  paint,  he  loved  to  etch,  he 
loved  to  joke  (and  sometimes  to  joke  very  wick- 
edly), but  above  all,  he  loved  to  quarrel.  This 
very  costly  pastime  of  his  brought  its  inevitable 
consequences;  many  well-meaning  and  influential 
people  who  would  gladly  have  been  his  friends 
were  driven  into  the  ranks  of  his  enemies,  and 
even  so  peaceable  a  person  as  the  present  writer 
has  been  forced  into  more  than  one  battle  royal 
with  him.  But  now  that  he  has  gone  to  the  Silent 
Land  —  whither  we  must  all  follow  him  —  these 
frailties  of  his  are  already  fading  from  our  mem- 
ories, while  "the  immortal  part  of  him"  grows 
greater  and  brighter;  and  it  will  continue  so  to 
grow  unless  some  still  greater  artist  shall  arise 
to  push  him  from  his  pedestal.  And  even  if  such 
an  unlikely  thing  should  ever  happen,  still  there 
never  can  be  another  Whistler. 


ONE  DAY  WITH  WHISTLER 

Reprinted  from  "The  Reader"  by  permission  of 
the  Bobbs-Merrill  Company,  and  of  Messrs. 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 

Til  THEN  Whistler  died  in  London  on  the 
VV  17th  of  July,  1903,  the  considerable 
stream  of  literature,  already  printed  about  him, 
suddenly  increased  to  a  torrent;  and  this  unprec- 
edented output  of  authorship  on  the  artist  and 
his  works  has  hardly  abated  in  the  ensuing  seven 
years  —  while  Whistler's  renown  has  steadily 
grown  from  great  to  greater. 

In  the  excellent  catalogue  issued  in  March, 
1910,  by  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  in 
connection  with  their  exhibition  of  Whistler's 
paintings  and  pastels,  there  is  a  bibliography 
which  mentions  no  fewer  than  sixty-seven  books 
on  Whistler.  This  formidable  list  is  not  com- 
plete, nor  does  it  pretend  to  include  the  great 
number  of  magazine  articles  and  serious  news- 
paper articles  on  the  subject. 

But  among  this  mass  of  literature  on  Whistler 
there  is  one  work  which,  I  think,  must  outshine 
and  outlast  any  of  the  others:  it  is  the  master's 
Biography  written  by  Elizabeth  Robins  Pennell 
and  her  husband,  Joseph  Pennell,  and  the  joint 
authors  were  par  excellence  the  ones  to  write  the 

181 


182   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

I  Life  of  Whistler.  Published  in  1908,  the  work 
has  already  gone  through  several  editions. 

If  the  old-time  author's  apologia  for  the  appear- 
ance of  some  new  book  or  treatise  were  still  the 
fashion,  I  could  make  mine  by  simply  stating  that 
the  present  article  contains  nothing  on  the  subject 
which  has  been  printed  before;  seeing  that  it  is 
the  "unvarnished  tale"  (also  the  hitherto  unpub- 
lished tale)  of  Whistler's  intercourse  with  me  and 
mine  with  him. 

Our  first  meeting,  long  years  ago,  took  place  at 
his  rooms  in  Tite  Street,  Chelsea.  My  errand 
did  not  concern  myself  at  all:  I  simply  under- 
took to  deliver  to  him  a  picture  entrusted  to  me 
at  Whistler's  request  by  an  absent  friend  of  his 
who  told  me  in  French  parlance  the  master  would 
be  visible  from  nine  to  ten  o'clock  every  morn- 
ing. I  reached  his  house  at  about  half  past  nine 
and  was  admitted  by  a  servant  who  showed  me 
into  a  reception  room  in  which  the  prevailing 
color  scheme  was  a  pale  and  delicate  yellow. 
The  room  at  first  looked  bare  and  empty,  yet 
its  general  effect  was  both  novel  and  pleasing. 
Having  sent  up  my  card,  upon  which  I  had  writ- 
ten a  memorandum  stating  the  cause  of  my 
visit,  I  soon  heard  a  light  step,  and  a  moment 
later  I  set  eyes  on  Whistler  for  the  first  time.  It 
was  his  humor  not  to  enter  his  own  reception 
room,  but  to  remain  at  the  threshold  glaring  at 
me  through  his  monocle  and  holding  his  watch 
open  in  his  hand.  There  he  was  —  the  Whistler 
of  so  many  portraits  and  so  many  caricatures  —  a 


ONE  DAY  WITH  WHISTLER  188 

slender,  alert  little  man,  but  so  gracefully  propor- 
tioned that,  as  he  stood  framed  in  his  own  door- 
way, it  was  not  easy  to  determine  whether  he  was 
big,  middle-sized,  or  small.  All  the  external  attri- 
butes or  trade-marks  were  in  evidence:  the  white 
lock  above  the  middle  of  his  forehead,  carefully 
segregated  from  the  black  curls  around  it;  the 
monocle  stuck  in  his  right  eye  and  protected  from 
breakage  by  a  thin  black  cord  which  ran  through 
a  hole  drilled  near  the  edge  of  the  crystal;  the 
aggressive  cravat  and  the  very  long  black  coat. 
Suddenly,  with  a  disconcerting  little  detonation 
caused  by  the  abrupt  parting  of  his  closed  lips  and 
with  a  simultaneous  grimace,  he  caused  the  eye- 
glass to  bounce  outward  from  his  eye,  and  hav- 
ing, like  the  patriarch  Job,  "opened  his  mouth," 
he  said:  "Now,  I  have  just  four  minutes  to  spare: 
what  is  it  that  you  want?"  Let  me  here  con- 
fess that  I  felt  somewhat  nettled  at  this  unexpected 
reception  —  seeing  that  I  had  come  long  miles  out 
of  my  way  solely  to  oblige  an  absent  friend  of  his 
and,  incidentally,  to  oblige  Whistler  himself  — 
and  so  I  set  myself  to  break  down  the  repellent 
pose  which  he  saw  fit  to  assume.  Having  -de- 
livered to  him  the  little  picture  which  I  had 
brought  I  gave  him  no  immediate  opening  to 
snub  me  further.  With  this  intent  I  talked  about 
the  friend  who  had  sent  me  to  him;  I  described 
to  him  the  fine  position  in  which  his  own  contri- 
bution to  the  Paris  Salon  had  been  hung;  I  told 
him  some  flattering  things  which  had  been  said 
by  the  right  sort  of  people  about  it;  I  gave  him 


184        THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

news,  which  I  knew  would  interest  him,  of  other 
friends  of  his,  and,  like  Browning's  hero,  I  kept 
up  "any  noise  bad  or  good,"  until  he  so  far  un- 
bent as  to  enter  the  room  where  I  was.  Abruptly 
he  then  put  the  question  to  me:  "Are  you  fond 
of  pictures?"  To  this  I  made  answer:  "Such 
pictures  as  may  be  seen  here,  yes."  "Come  to 
the  studio,"  said  he;  and  thus  began  a  memorable 
day  which  only  ended  when  he  had  to  go  out  to 
dine  at  eight  in  the  evening,  and  even  then  he 
delayed  —  calmly  remarking  that  people  always 
waited  dinner  for  him,  no  matter  how  late  he 
came.  This  long  day  was  passed  in  the  studio 
except  when  we  adjourned  to  the  dining-room 
for  lunch,  where  I  remember  that  the  table  was 
decorated  with  yellow  flowers  and  that  the  dishes 
were  hollow,  the  hollow  space  being  filled  with 
boiling  water  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  the  eat- 
ables hot. 

But  it  was  in  his  studio  that  Whistler  was  at 
his  brightest  and  best.  Surely  never  was  a  man 
so  far  removed  from  being  commonplace.  His 
alert  wit  kept  flashing  like  summer  lightning,  and 
the  pronouncement  which  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson 
delivered  on  his  friend  David  Garrick  might  with 
equal  force  be  applied  to  Whistler:  "Sir,  for 
sprightly  conversation  he  is  the  foremost  man  in 
the  world."  Much  of  his  talk  that  day  was  of  a 
denunciatory  character.  Some  eminent  person- 
ages were  severely  castigated,  but  the  vials  of  his 
bitterest  wrath  were  poured  on  the  devoted 
heads  of  certain  prominent  artists  and  more 


ONE  DAY  WITH  WHISTLER  185 

especially  on  those  who  painted  portraits. 
While  speaking  on  this  subject  he  gave  expression 
to  one  opinion  which  seems  to  be  so  sound  and 
right  that  it  should  be  recorded  here:  "To  paint 
what  is  called  a  great  portrait  in  England,"  said 
he,  "the  artist  must  overload  everything  with 
strong  contrasts  of  violent  colors.  His  success 
with  the  rich  ignorant  public  is  assured  if  only 
he  succeeds  in  setting  his  colors  shouting  against 
each  other.  Go  to  the  exhibition  at  the  Royal 
Academy  and  see  what  is  called  the  picture  of  the 
year  —  Mr.  A's  portrait  of  Mr.  B.  You  can 
easily  find  it  by  seeing  the  crowd  that  stands 
staring  at  it  all  day  long.  Mix  with  this  crowd 
and  get  near  to  the  picture;  fill  your  eye  with  it; 
then  turn  round  and  look  at  the  faces  of  the  liv- 
ing spectators,  —  how  quiet  in  tone  they  are ! 
If  A's  portrait  is  right,  surely  every  living  man  and 
woman  you  see  in  the  crowd  must  be  wrong!" 

From  all  this  depressing  pessimism  he  rapidly 
turned  to  another  subject  which  he  proceeded  to 
treat  with  enthusiastic  optimism;  for  he  began  to 
talk  of  his  own  works.  His  delight  in  these  was 
as  frank  and  complete  as  the  delight  of  some  little 
boy  who  has  triumphantly  constructed  a  satis- 
factory mud  pie. 

There  was  standing  on  a  perpendicular  easel  in 
the  studio  his  superb  portrait  of  the  violinist,  Sara- 
sate  —  the  same  picture  which  afterward  created 
such  a  sensation  at  the  Paris  Salon,  and  which  is 
now  the  pride  of  the  Carnegie  Institute,  Pitts- 
burgh. The  delighted  artist  conducted  me 


186   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

through  a  doorway  which  faced  the  picture  and, 
further  on,  to  the  end  of  a  long  corridor.  There 
turning  round,  we  gazed  on  the  picture  framed 
in  a  vista  of  corridor  and  doorway.  Laying  his 
hand  on  my  shoulder  he  said  to  me:  "Now  isn't 
it  beautiful?"  "It  certainly  is,"  I  answered. 
"No,"  said  he,  "but  isn't  it  beautiful?"  "It  is 
indeed,"  I  replied.  Then  raising  his  voice  to  a 
scream,  with  a  not  too  wicked  blasphemy,  and 
bringing  his  hand  down  upon  his  knee  with  a 
bang  so  as  to  give  superlative  emphasis  to  the 

last  word  of  his  sentence,  he  cried,  " it! 

Isn't  it  beautiful?"  If  I  could  do  no  other  thing 
so  well  as  Whistler,  I  could  at  least  shout  as  loud 
as  he  could  scream,  so  turning  to  him  and  adopt- 
ing his  little  "swear  word"  (as  a  quotation,  of 

course)  I  shouted  into  his  face  " it,  it 

is  I"  This  third  declaration  seemed  to  satisfy 
him,  and  so  we  returned  to  the  studio. 

More  manifestations  of  delight  in  his  own 
work  were  to  follow:  he  had  just  received  the 
proof-sheets  of  his  now  famous  printed  lecture, 
the  "Ten  O' Clock"  (first  delivered  in  London, 
at  10  P.M.)  and  he  asked  me  to  read  some  of  it 
aloud  so  that  he  could  "hear  how  it  sounded." 
Now  I  believe  it  is  not  possible  for  any  one  to 
read  a  piece  of  fine  literature  aloud  and  to  do 
it  well,  unless  he  has  read  it  before  and  knows 
what  is  coming  in  the  text;  and  so  I  was  not  at 
all  surprised  when,  after  I  had  read  a  few  pages 
to  him,  he  called  out  "Stop!  You  are  murdering 
it!  Let  me  read  it  to  you."  He  was  quite  right; 


ONE  DAY  WITH  WHISTLER  187 

I  was  murdering  it!  So  we  changed  places.  He 
read  his  own  book  admirably,  and  kept  at  it  for 
about  two  hours,  but  this  comprised  many  digres- 
sions. My  enjoyment  was,  however,  interrupted  by 
a  characteristic  incident:  his  man-servant  entered 
the  studio:  "Well?"  said  Whistler.  "Lady  Some- 
body, sir,"  said  the  servant  (she  was  one  of  the 
great  ladies  of  the  British  peerage).  "Where 
is  she?"  "In  her  carriage  at  the  door,  sir." 
Whistler  took  no  further  notice  of  his  servitor 
but  resumed  the  reading  of  his  proof-sheets  to 
me,  and  the  puzzled  footman,  who  was  standing 
behind  his  master's  back  and  facing  me,  shook 
his  head  slowly  up  and  down,  and  —  like  Long- 
fellow's Arabs  —  "silently  stole  away."  Thus 
the  reading  went  on  for  quite  ten  minutes  longer, 
and  the  reader's  sole  auditor  fidgeted  more  and 
more,  till,  realizing  how  deadly  cold  it  was  on 
that  March  day,  I  called  out  to  him,  "I  beg 
your  pardon,  Mr.  Whistler,  but  I  think  I  over- 
heard your  servant  telling  you  that  a  lady  was 
waiting  to  see  you."  "Oh,"  said  he,  "let  her 
wait,  let  her  wait,  —  I  'm  mobbed  with  these 
people!"  Then  he  went  on  reading  for  fully 
fifteen  minutes  more,  and  after  that  (his  voice 
was  getting  tired,  I  dare  say)  he  condescended 
to  go  downstairs  and  receive  her  shivering  lady- 
ship. 

Another  incident  of  that  day  was  the  visit  of 
a  foreign  artist,  an  old  acquaintance,  with  whom 
Whistler  had  not  —  as  yet  —  quarreled.  He  was 
received  with  genuine  cordiality,  and,  artist-like, 


188   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

he  ran  round  the  studio  looking  at  everything. 
One  small  picture  seemed  to  charm  him  especially, 
and  he  said,  "Now  that  is  one  of  your  good  ones." 
"Don't  look  at  it,  dear  boy,"  said  Whistler,  air- 
ily, "it's  not  finished."  "Finished!"  said  the 
visitor.  "Why,  it  is  the  most  carefully  finished 
picture  of  yours  that  I  have  ever  seen."  "Don't 
look  at  it!"  persisted  Whistler.  "You  are  doing 
injustice  to  yourself,  you  are  doing  injustice  to 
my  picture — and  you  are  doing  injustice  to  me!" 
The  visitor  looked  bewildered,  when  Whistler 
in  a  theatrical  tone  cried  out,  "Stop,  I'll  finish 
it  now!"  Then  he  procured  a  very  small  camel's- 
hair  brush,  fixed  it  on  a  long  and  slender  handle, 
mixed  a  little  speck  of  paint  on  his  palette, 
dipped  the  tip  of  his  brush  into  it,  and  then, 
standing  off  from  his  picture,  and  with  the  action 
of  a  fencer  with  his  rapier,  he  lunged  forward  and 
touched  the  picture  in  one  spot  with  his  pigment. 
"Now  it's  finished,"  said  he.  "Now  you  may 
look  at  it!"  This  was  all  highly  dramatic,  and 
indeed  very  well  acted,  but  as  in  the  case  of  some 
stage  plays,  the  final  act  of  Whistler's  perform- 
ance proved  to  be  an  anti-climax:  the  foreign 
artist  took  his  leave,  but  finding  that  he  had  left 
his  umbrella  behind  him,  called  for  it  next  day. 
The  servant,  recognizing  him,  told  him  that 
Mr.  Whistler  had  gone  out  for  the  day,  but  in- 
vited him  to  go  to  the  studio  and  seek  his  um- 
brella. He  went  there  and  found  it,  but  also 
took  the  opportunity  of  having  one  more  look 
at  the  picture  which  had  been  "finished"  for 


ONE  DAY  WITH  WHISTLER  189 

his  special  benefit  the  day  before;  and  then  he 
saw  that  the  little  dab  of  wet  paint  which  Whistler 
had  so  dramatically  put  on  he  had  afterward 
scrupulously  wiped  off  again! 

The  kindly  old  Latin  maxim  which  exhorts 
us  to  "Speak  nothing  but  good  concerning  the 
dead"  is  appropriate  for  the  millions  of  ordinary 
nobodies  who  disappear  and  are  forgotten;  but 
historical  verity  is  most  essential  in  the  case  of 
eminent  or  notable  personalities  whom  the  world 
will  not  forget.  Thomas  Carlyle  was  one  such 
man  and  Lord  Byron  was  another;  but  Mr. 
Froude  so  "edited"  Carlyle's  diary  that  no  one 
is  satisfied,  and  Thomas  Moore  suppressed  By- 
ron's diary  altogether.  Thus  these  two  eminent 
men  are  not  known  to  posterity  as  they  each  had 
deliberately  planned  to  be  known,  and  a  serious 
danger  of  the  same  kind  threatens  the  memory 
of  Whistler.  He  was  no  coward — whatever  other 
faults  and  eccentricities  he  may  have  manifested 
—  and  his  life  was  consistent  (in  an  inconsistent 
way)  from  first  to  last. 

Yet  some  of  the  biographical  notices  which 
have  appeared  try  to  make  of  him  a  sort  of  milk- 
and-water  saint.  This  falsification  may  possibly 
do  honor  to  the  hearts  of  these  writers  —  but 
certainly  not  to  their  heads !  —  and  Whistler 
would  never  have  approved  of  it.  He  took 
infinite  pains,  indeed,  to  let  the  world  see  his 
character  as  it  actually  was,  and  those  who  knew 
him  best  would  agree  with  me  in  the  opinion  that 
all  posthumous  records  of  him  should  be  written 


190   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

in   the   spirit   of   Othello's   manly   request   when, 
knowing  that  he  was  about  to  die,  he  said: 

Speak  of  me  as  I  ana;  nothing  extenuate, 
Nor  set  down  aught  in  malice. 

It  is  in  this  spirit  that  I  now  venture  to  give,  as 
dispassionately  as  I  can,  the  results  of  my  long 
years  of  study  of  this  extraordinary  "human 
document,"  Whistler;  and  if  I  do  not  render 
my  verdict  worthless  by  covering  him  over  with 
an  indiscriminate  coat  of  "whitewash,"  I  have 
the  precedent  of  his  own  book,  "  The  Gentle 
Art  of  Making  Enemies"  to  warrant  me  in  tell- 
ing the  truth  without  fear  or  favor.  Indeed,  I 
shall  not  go  so  far  as  Whistler  went,  for  in  that 
book  of  his  (with  its  felicitous  title)  he  did  not 
scruple  to  print  numbers  of  letters  from  persons 
still  living,  and  certainly  without  the  consent  of 
the  several  writers.  It  is  quite  another  and  an 
allowable  thing  to  print  private  letters  after  the 
writers  of  them  are  dead;  and  many  delightful 
books  are  made  almost  entirely  from  this  source. 
Whistler  has  often  been  called  the  greatest 
painter  of  his  day  —  and  he  was  certainly  the 
greatest  etcher.  If  this  proud  position  was  ac- 
corded to  him  too  tardily  it  was  mainly  through 
his  own  fault.  It  was  his  humor  to  antagonize 
the  world  in  general,  and  naturally  the  conse- 
quences reacted  upon  himself.  The  same  cause 
would  have  brought  about  the  same  results  in 
the  case  of  Corot  or  Millet  or  Sargent  or  any  other 
man  of  genius,  for  it  was  Whistler  himself  who 


ONE  DAY  WITH  WHISTLER  191 

deliberately  made  the  hard  bed  in  which  he  had  to 
lie  for  many  years.  "To  the  froward  thou  wilt 
show  thyself  froward"  remains  as  true  to-day  as 
when  it  was  written  long  ages  ago. 

It  is  remarkable  that  no  writer  has  as  yet 
pointed  out  the  strong  resemblance  between  the 
man  Whistler  and  the  man  Benvenuto  Cellini. 
Whistler  flourished  some  three  and  a  half  cen- 
turies later  than  the  famous  Florentine  sculptor 
and  goldsmith,  who  was  born  in  the  year  1500; 
each  of  the  two  has  left  an  extraordinary  book 
in  which  the  author  is  the  extravagantly  vaunted 
hero;  each  of  them  spent  much  of  his  life  in  waging 
conflicts  of  his  own  making,  and  each  records 
his  own  exploits  with  the  most  complacent  self- 
satisfaction. 

Mr.  John  Addington  Symonds  —  the  trans- 
lator, apologist,  and  vindicator  of  Cellini  —  feels 
constrained  to  write  of  the  Florentine:  "Great 
though  his  talents  were  he  vastly  overrated  them, 
and  set  a  monstrously  exaggerated  value  on  his 
works  of  art.  The  same  qualities  made  him  a 
fierce  and  bitter  rival;  he  could  not  believe  that 
any  one  with  whom  he  came  into  collision  had 
the  right  to  stand  beside  him."  Does  not  this 
extract  make  us  almost  feel  that  we  are  reading 
a  paragraph  from  some  current  biography  of 
Whistler? 

But  notwithstanding  these  self-created  draw- 
backs his  genius  as  an  artist,  coupled  with  his 
brilliant  powers  of  pleasing  (when  he  chose  to 
please),  resulted  in  the  fact  that  Whistler's 


192       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

society  was  eagerly  courted  by  the  most  eminent 
artistic  and  intellectual  men  and  women  of  his 
day  and  generation.  His  faculty  for  inspiring 
people  with  enthusiasm  for  himself  and  for  his 
pictures  was  simply  marvelous.  This  effect, 
which  he  wrought  on  his  devotees,  was  wittily 
described  by  the  Paris  writer,  M.  Henri  Beraldi, 
as  "the  malady  of  Whistlerium  Tremens,"  and 
(while  it  lasted)  it  was  naturally  delightful;  but 
the  day  was  sure  to  come  when  Whistler  would 
suddenly  "turn  and  rend"  his  former  friend, 
and  after  that  the  friend  was  never  forgiven.  So 
often  did  this  happen  that  it  would  be  easy  to 
make  a  tabular  list  of  say  a  hundred  names  of 
more  or  less  distinguished  and  amiable  people 
who  once  stood  high  in  the  Whistlerian  esteem, 
but  of  whom  nearly  every  one  had  the  misfortune 
unconsciously  to  wound  the  master's  enormous 
vanity  and  so  to  be  written  down  in  his  black 
books  with  indelible  ink.  Yet  even  in  these  sad 
circumstances  Whistler  never  allowed  his  own 
interest  to  modify  his  wrath  against  the  uncon- 
scious offender;  indeed,  if  it  was  his  special  inter- 
est —  monetary  or  otherwise  —  to  maintain  good 
relations  with  any  man,  that  was  the  man  of  all 
others  whom  he  was  surest  to  "clapper-claw"! 

Shakespeare  tells  us  that  "troops  of  friends" 
are  one  of  the  blessings  which  should  accompany 
a  happy  old  age,  and  Whistler's  last  years  would 
have  been  desolate  indeed  were  it  not  that  a 
few  —  a  very  few  —  faithful  souls  clung  to  him  to 
the  end.  I  have  particularly  in  mind  an  Ameri- 


ONE  DAY  WITH  WHISTLER  193 

can  couple  residing  in  London,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Joseph  Pennell,  who  acted  as  his  very  efficient 
guardian  angels  to  the  last;  "and  all  for  love,  and 
nothing  for  reward"  —  as  old  Edmund  Spenser 
has  it.  Theirs  was  the  untiring  fidelity  which 
"beareth  all  things,  believeth  all  things,  hopeth 
all  things,  endureth  all  things"! 

If  I  were  asked  why  it  was  that  Whistler  so 
assiduously  practised  "the  gentle  art  of  making 
enemies"  (instead  of  the  still  gentler  art  of  mak- 
ing friends)  I  should  answer:  primarily  because 
he  liked  it!  He  has  on  occasion  recounted  to 
me  with  high  glee  the  details  of  one  or  another  of 
his  quarrels,  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  he  was 
a  brilliant  fighter;  but  such  little  matters  as  the 
logic  or  the  equity  of  the  question  in  dispute 
never  troubled  him  at  all.  His  faculty  for  "mak- 
ing the  worse  appear  the  better  reason"  was 
quite  extraordinary,  and  often  he  first  put  him- 
self entirely  in  the  wrong  and  then  fought  a  val- 
iant, if  a  losing  battle. 

Another  of  his  peculiarities  was  the  histrionic 
cast  of  his  nature.  Queen  Victoria  once  com- 
plained of  her  prime  minister,  Gladstone:  "He 
harangues  me  as  if  I  were  a  public  meeting." 
Similarly,  Whistler  was  forever  performing  as  if 
he  were  playing  a  comedy-part  before  an  audi- 
ence, and  it  was  never  easy  to  determine  when  he 
was  in  serious  earnest  and  when  he  was  only 
"poking  fun."  This  same  theatrical  cast  of  his 
mind  led  him,  years  ago,  to  change  his  own  name 
—  for  Whistler  had  no  more  right  to  assume  the 


194       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

middle  name  of  McNeill  than  the  present  writer 
would  have  to  appropriate  the  middle  name  of 
Plantagenet  or  Hohenzollern.  He  was  baptized 
James  Abbott  Whistler.  This  fact  concerning 
his  legal  name  is  not  known  to  many,  but  there 
is  incontestable  evidence  of  it;  and  in  his  later 
years  there  was  no  surer  way  of  infuriating  him 
than  by  giving  him  the  name  which  he  received 
in  baptism.  The  poet  Swinburne  committed  this 
unpardonable  sin  in  the  dedication  of  one  of  his 
poems.  Another  of  these  inconvenient  little  mat- 
ters about  which  Whistler  loved  to  mystify  and 
befog  the  public  is  the  fact  that  he  was  born  on 
the  10th  of  July,  1834,  in  Worthen  Street,  Lowell, 
Mass.  Such  a  stubborn  fact  as  this,  however, 
did  not  deter  him  from  swearing,  during  the  Sir 
William  Eden  lawsuit  in  Paris,  that  he  was  born 
in  Russia!  But  in  Whistler's  case,  as  in  the  case 
of  very  imaginative  little  children  (girls  oftener 
than  boys),  we  should  be  very  careful  of  condemning 
them  for  deliberate  lying  when  they  only  dramatize 
a  series  of  imaginary  things  until  at  last  they  come 
to  believe  them. 

People  have  often  suggested  to  me  that,  in 
view  of  his  eccentricities,  Whistler  must  have 
been  a  little  wrong  in  the  head.  Not  he!  I 
have  never  known  a  man  whose  intellect  was 
clearer  or  more  alert.  His  memory  also  was 
very  accurate  —  more  especially  with  regard  to 
all  the  ins  and  outs  of  his  numerous  quarrels. 

Still  another  of  his  characteristics  was  his  way 
of  imparting  a  look  of  careless  precipitation  to 


ONE  DAY  WITH  WHISTLER  195 

his  later  paintings  and  prints  —  the  truth  being 
that,  to  the  very  last,  he  took  infinite  care  with 
every  detail  of  his  work,  and  every  one  who  has 
sat  to  him  for  a  portrait  can  testify  that  the 
master  almost  killed  his  sitter  with  fatigue  by 
reason  of  his  scrupulous  exactions  and  repetitions. 
So  long  as  he  was  at  work  on  a  picture  he  was 
intensely  in  earnest,  and  it  was  only  in  his  inter- 
course with  his  fellowmen  that  he  assumed  the 
role  of  poser  and  performer.  He  would  very 
rarely  answer  a  letter,  but,  like  Napoleon,  gen- 
erally assumed  that  a  letter  would  answer  itself 
through  the  subsequent  event.  One  of  the  last 
friendly  epistles  which  I  received  from  him  was 
in  acknowledgment  of  a  cutting  from  the  New 
York  Tribune,  which  I  had  sent  him  and  which 
contained  the  announcement  of  his  own  marriage. 
This  paragraph  being  printed  at  the  top  of  one 
of  the  pages  of  the  newspaper,  I  utilized  the 
inch  of  blank  margin  above  by  writing  on  it  the 
following  verse: 

One  Whistler  more,  one  Godwin  less, 

Two  Artists  wed  this  day; 
Long  may  you  each  the  other  bless, 

So  prays  your  friend  F.  K. 

But  the  inevitable  hour  was  to  come  when  Whistler 
—  like  some  supposedly  tamed  wild  animal  — 
must  suddenly  and  unprovokedly  turn  and  bite. 
In  my  case  it  happened  in  this  wise:  Two  well- 
known  American  librarians  had  collaborated  in 
compiling  a  pamphlet  which  was  entitled  "Guide 
to  the  Study  of  James  Abbott  McNeill  Whistler." 


196   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

It  was  published  by  the  University  of  the  State 
of  New  York  at  Albany,  and  bore  on  its  title-page 
the  names  of  the  joint  authors.  The  sole  motive 
of  both  the  compilers  and  the  Regents  of  the  Uni- 
versity was  to  do  honor  to  Whistler,  but  it  appears 
that  in  the  little  book  the  incense  burned  was  not 
pungent  enough  to  suit  the  nostrils  of  the  illustri- 
ous subject.  Three  copies  of  the  pamphlet  were 
sent  to  me.  One  of  them  I  kept  and  the  remain- 
ing two  I  sent  respectively  to  Mr.  Joseph  Pennell 
and  Mr.  Ernest  Brown  in  London.  If  I  had  had 
a  fourth  I  would  have  sent  it  to  Whistler  him- 
self in  the  belief  that  it  would  have  given  him 
pleasure.  Six  months  afterward  I  arrived  in 
London  and  was  told  by  Lady  Seymour  Haden 
(Whistler's  half-sister)  that  "her  brother  Jimmie" 
had  buried  his  wife  that  same  day.  I  had  known 
and  esteemed  the  deceased  lady,  and  so  I  at  once 
wrote  to  Whistler  telling  him  that  his  sister  had 
just  told  me  of  his  bereavement  and  assuring  him 
of  my  deep  sympathy.  My  letter  made  mention  of 
this  and  of  nothing  else.  Next  day  (the  day  after 
his  wife's  funeral)  I  received  from  him  a  registered 
letter,  the  envelope  bordered  in  deepest  black  and 
sealed  in  black  wax  with  his  mystic  emblem  or 
device  of  a  sort  of  Whistlerized  butterfly.  I  had 
not  expected  so  early  a  reply  to  my  letter  of  con- 
dolence, but  when  I  came  to  read  what  he  had 
written  to  me  I  certainly  stared  at  it  in  amaze- 
ment. I  do  not  think  that  in  his  published  book 
there  is  a  more  brilliant  specimen  of  characteristic 
abusive  Whistlerism  than  this. 


NOCTURNE:   PALACES 

Size  of  the  original  print,  1  If  by  7}  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Whistler.  A  beautiful  example  of  Whistler's  printing,  the 
effect  being  obtained  by  the  most  artistic  wiping  of  the  ink  from  the  plate. 
The  "  Nocturnes  "  are  substantially  paintings  on  copper,  hi  printer's  ink. 


GARDEN 

Size  of  the  original  print,  12  by  9f  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Whistler.     This  is  one  of  the  famous  "  Twenty-six  etchings, 
of  which  thirty  sets  only  were  issued,  the  artist  himself  printing  all  the  proofs. 


ONE  DAY  WITH  WHISTLER  197 

Whistler  wrote  reproaching  me  for  the  "gratui- 
tous zeal"  which  had  led  me  to  further  the  circu- 
lation of  a  pamphlet  which  was  most  offensive 
to  him.  I  had  distributed  only  two  copies  of  it, 
and  I  had  no  more  to  do  with  the  making  of  it 
than  "the  babe  unborn."  Moreover,  the  names  of 
the  two  compilers  were  printed  on  the  title  page. 

Whistler's  letter  went  on  to  say,  "I  am  grateful 
for  this  activity  of  yours,"  and  he  proceeded  to 
denounce  "the  authorities  of  the  American  Col- 
lege, upon  whose  shelves  is  allowed  to  be  officially 
catalogued  this  grotesque  slander  of  a  distinguished 
and  absent  countryman."  He  added  that  if  I 
had  sent  to  him  direct,  and  to  him  alone,  the 
"libelous  little  book,"  he  would  have  thanked  me 
for  the  kind  courtesy,  and  would  have  recognized, 
in  the  warning  given,  the  right  impulse  of  an 
honorable  man.  The  letter  ended:  "I  am,  Sir, 
Your  obedient  Servant,  J.  McNeill  Whistler." 

It  might  be  said  of  Whistler's  letters,  as  was 
said  by  an  English  writer  on  the  subject  of  Dean 
Swift,  that  he  would  have  been  one  of  the  greatest 
of  humorists  were  it  not  that  all  his  humor 
was  i7Z-humor.  These  letters  of  his  were  biting 
and  cutting  in  their  wit,  but  none  of  them  con- 
tained one  drop  of  "the  milk  of  human  kindness." 

When  a  man  is  conscious  that  he  has  done  no 
wrong  to  another  he  resents  a  gratuitous  and 
unfair  attack,  and  Whistler,  that  same  week,  had 
laid  himself  open  to  a  counter  blow  from  me: 
Mr.  T.  R.  Way's  descriptive  catalogue  of  Whistler's 
lithographs  had  just  been  published,  and  in  a 


198   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

conspicuous  note,  by  way  of  preface,  the  author 
says:  "The  title-page  was  designed  by  Mr. 
Whistler.  The  frontispiece  was  drawn  from  a  pho- 
tograph supplied  by  Mr.  Whistler,  and  has  been 
worked  upon  by  him."  This  frontispiece  shows 
us  nothing  but  the  master's  back  as  he  stands  in 
a  garden.  But  it  was  in  Whistler's  wording  of 
the  title-page  that  he  left  himself  vulnerable. 
Evidently  his  preoccupation  was  to  parade  his 
own  name  in  large  type  at  the  top  of  the  page, 
and  so  as  to  do  this  he  deliberately  misnames 
the  catalogue.  He  had  just  been  abusing  me 
about  a  "libelous  little  book"  which  was  highly 
obnoxious  to  him,  —  though  I  had  no  more  to  do 
with  the  making  of  it  than  the  man  in  the  moon, 
—  and  now  I  sent  him  a  letter  complaining  about 
another  book  which  was  equally  obnoxious  to  me. 
Under  these  circumstances  I  was  enabled  to  incor- 
porate in  the  following  epistle  much  of  the  iden- 
tical language  of  his  own  letter  written  to  me  two 
days  before: 

To  James  McNeill  Whistler,  Esq. : 

Sir:  "I  must  not  let  the  occasion  of  your  being  in  town 
pass  without  acknowledging  the  gratuitous  zeal  with  which 
you  have  done  your  best  to  further  the  circulation  of  one 
of  the  most  curiously"  misleading  announcements  "it  has 
been  my  fate  hitherto  to  meet." 

I  refer  to  the  title-page  of  Mr.  Way's  newly  published 
Catalogue  of  your  lithographs. 

I  read  in  this  catalogue  that  "the  title-page  was  designed 
by  Mr.  Whistler."  On  turning  to  the  title-page  I  read,  in 
big  type  and  on  the  first  and  main  line  — 

"Mr.  Whistler's  Lithographs" 


ONE  DAY  WITH  WHISTLER  199 

and  lower  down,  in  small  type,  I  read  — 

"The  Catalogue  compiled  by  T.  R.  Way." 

Believing  what  your  title-page  tells  me,  I  say  to  myself 
with  empressement:  "Mr.  Whistler's  Lithographs!  Oh,  let 
me  see  'em,  every  one!"  I  turn  to  the  first  page,  eager  to 
see  the  first  of  Mr.  WTiistler's  lithographs.  It  is  not  there. 
There  are  none  of  them  there.  The  only  lithograph  I  find 
is  one  representing  a  gentleman  turning  his  back  on  his 
admirers  —  and  this  is  not  the  work  of  Mr.  Whistler. 

Now  why  do  you  announce  that  the  contents  of  a  publi- 
cation are  "Mr.  Whistler's  Lithographs"  when  in  fact  they 
are  no  such  thing? 

"Had  you  sent  to  me  direct,  and  to  me  alone,  the  libel- 
ous  little  book,  it  would  have  been  my  pleasant  duty  to 
have  thanked  you  for  the  kind  courtesy  —  and  to  have  recog- 
nized, in  the  warning  given,  the  right  impulse  of  an  honor- 
able man." 

Moreover,  I  would  have  told  you  that  your  specially 
designed  title-page  should  read  "A  Catalogue  of  Mr. 
Whistler's  Lithographs  "  and  that  you  ought  not  to  announce 
that  the  "pretty  work"  contained  the  lithographs  them- 
selves—  thereby  avoiding  "this  grotesque"  bewildering 
"of  a  distinguished  and  absent  fellow  countryman"  (mean- 
ing myself,  this  time!). 

"I  have  no  doubt  that,  with  the  untiring  energy  of  the 
'busy'  one,  and  thanks  to  your  unexampled  perseverance, 
you  have  smartly  placed  the  pretty  work  in  the  hands  of 
many  another  before  this." 

"Personally  I  am  grateful  to  this  activity  of  yours." 

"I  am,  Sir,  Your  obedient  servant," 
FREDERICK  KEPPEL. 
Post  Scriptum: 
Note  on  the  sentences  enclosed  in  quotation  marks: 

All  words  so  marked  are  Whistler's,  every  line; 
For  God's  sake,  reader,  take  them  not  for  mine! 

LORD  BYRON  (adapted). 


200   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Thus  far  I  had  kept  my  temper.  "Bad  had 
begun"  but  "worse  remained  behind."  Having 
sent  him,  soon  afterward,  from  New  York,  a 
detailed  report  of  some  business  which  I  had 
transacted  at  his  request,  Whistler  —  with  a 
refinement  of  insolence  —  called  in  the  porter  who 
worked  in  the  house,  and  who,  at  the  artist's  dicta- 
tion, wrote  me  a  clumsily  written  and  ill-spelled 
letter  commencing:  "Sir:  Mr.  Whistler,  who  is 
present,  orders  me  to  write  as  follows:"  Then  the 
letter  went  on  to  say  that  nearly  every  statement 
which  I  had  made  in  my  report  was  a  deliberate 
lie!  It  was  then  that  I  first  got  angry  with  him; 
and  so  would  you,  "gentle  reader,"  if  he  had  given 
you  the  same  provocation.  Plain  prose  seemed 
inadequate  to  the  occasion,  so  I  "told  him  what 
I  thought  of  him"  in  the  rhymes  which  follow. 
To  this  communication  he  sent  me  a  sort  of  re- 
ceipt in  duplicate,  verbally,  through  two  of  his 
friends.  His  message  in  both  cases  was  that 
when  he  saw  me  he  would  kill  me;  and  through 
each  of  the  friends  I  sent  the  return  message: 
"Tell  Whistler  that  I  have  no  notion  of  allowing 
myself  to  be  'killed'  in  the  simple  manner  which 
he  proposes." 

Here  follows  the  poem  for  which  Whistler  twice 
declared  that  he  would  "kill"  me! 

"...  Oh  that  I  were 
Upon  the  hill  of  Basan,  to  outroar 
The  horned  herd,  for  I  have  savage  cause." 

SHAKESPEARE. 


ONE  DAY  WITH  WHISTLER  201 

Oh  Jimmie  Whistler,  ever  fighting; 

In  rows  and  "ructions"  still  delighting; 

Small  —  as  your  fellowman's  despiser; 

Great  artist  —  as  self -advertiser ! 

Like  cackling  hens  or  cocks  a-crowing 

Your  tireless  trumpet  keeps  a-blowing. 

We  can't  forget  you!    You  won't  let  us; 

With  flippant  brag  you  still  beset  us  — 

(I  grant  these  lines  are  flippant  too, 

But  then,  they  are  addressed  to  you!) 

You  pounce  on  all  men,  rend  them,  shake  them; 

You  give  hard  knocks  —  and  you  must  take  them! 

We  know  your  foolish,  glib  verbosity, 

But  where 's  your  moral  generosity? 

We  know  your  moral  color-blindness, 

But  where 's  your  "milk  of  human  kindness"? 

Your  least  pronouncement  full  of  venom  is  — 

"  The  Gentle  Art  of  Making  Enemies"! 

Great  men  don't  beat  their  drum,  dear  James  M.  — 

Their  work's  their  monument;  bragging  shames  'em; 

"William  the  Silent"  —  glorious  nickname! 

Jimmie  the  Noisy!     There's  a  "slick"  name! 

Artists  make  shows  for  fame  or  pelf, 

But  your  great  show-piece  is  —  yourself. 

"  Oh,  notice  me !     Oh,  talk  of  me ! " 

That  is  your  cry  unceasingly. 

In  funny  speeches  you  're  untiring, 

Thinking  the  world  stands  still,  admiring; 

Ne'er  dreaming  (while  you  pose  like  statue) 

Men  are  not  laughing  with  but  at  you! 

Forget  not,  Whistler,  but  remember, 
Your  May  is  past,  you're  near  December: 
And  when  life's  evening  shadows  close 
One  friend  is  worth  a  thousand  foes. 

It  is  obvious  that  at  this  point  all  my  inter- 
course with  this  extraordinary  man  came  to  an  end. 


BRACQUEMOND  AND  BUHOT 

PAINTER-ETCHERS 

THE  etchings  of  two  contemporary  French 
painter-etchers  present  a  vivid  contrast. 
The  two  have  very  little  in  common  except  the 
fine  quality  of  their  work,  but  each  artist  is  pretty 
sure  to  retain  a  permanent  and  distinguished 
place  in  art  by  right  of  his  genuine  originality 
as  well  as  because  of  his  technical  power  as  an 
etcher. 

Bracquemond,  who  was  born  in  Paris  in  1833, 
has  survived  his  younger  contemporary  and  he 
is  still  hale  and  hearty;  while  Buhot,  who  was 
born  at  Valognes,  Normandy,  in  1847,  died  in 
Paris  in  1896. 

The  etchings  of  Bracquemond  are  very  like  the 
man  who  made  them.  He  is  a  great,  strong, 
virile  man,  and  his  forceful  personality  is  reflected 
in  every  picture  that  he  has  made.  As  a  techni- 
cian in  etching  he  is,  perhaps,  supreme;  but  he 
is  not  as  well  known  among  American  connois- 
seurs as  he  deserves  to  be,  and  for  the  reason 
that  his  robust  nature  always  scorned  to  descend 
to  more  or  less  feeble  prettiness;  and  such  pretti- 
ness  is  the  quality  which  is  the  first  to  attract 
the  great  public  everywhere.  To  demonstrate 
this  let  us  contrast  some  very  popular  picture  by 

202 


PORTRAIT  OF  M.   EDMOND  DE  GOXCOURT 

Size  of  the  original  print,  18  by  12|  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Felix  Bracquemond,  after  his  own  drawing,  of  the  same  size, 
which  now  hangs  in  the  Luxembourg  Gallery,  Paris.  Edmond  de  Goncourt, 
the  eminent  author  and  art-collector,  was  horn  at  Nancy,  France,  in  1822.  In 
his  will  de  Goncourt  directed  that,  after  his  death,  his  art  collections  should 
not  be  "consigned  to  the  cold  tomb  of  some  art  museum,"  but  that  they  must 
be  dispersed  at  public  auction,  so  that  they  would  go  into  the  possession  of 
genuine  art-lovers  who  could  worthily  appreciate  them. 


BRACQUEMOND  AND  BUHOT  203 

Angelica  Kauffmann  with  one  by  Rembrandt. 
The  former  is  undeniably  "pretty"  and  the 
Rembrandt  may  be  frankly  ugly;  but  in  great- 
ness how  the  ugly  picture  towers  above  the  pretty 
one! 

Bracquemond  has  won  all  the  official  honors 
of  the  Paris  Salon,  —  even  to  the  supreme  recom- 
pense of  the  Medal  of  Honor,  —  and  in  Beraldi's 
twelve  volumes,  Les  Graveurs  du  XIXemt  Siecle, 
the  author  devotes  the  whole  of  his  third  volume 
to  the  etchings  of  Bracquemond.  Beraldi  writes 
of  him: 

"He  is  one  of  the  artists  who  have  most  power- 
fully contributed  to  the  revival  in  France  of  orig- 
inal painter-etching.  The  art  could  not  have 
found  a  stronger  champion.  Robust  in  mind  as 
he  is  in  body,  persevering,  confident  in  himself 
in  spite  of  those  difficulties  which  beset  so  many 
budding  artists  of  talent,  such  obstacles  only 
served  to  make  him  stronger.  He  never  had  a 
teacher,  but  formed  his  style  all  alone.  Having 
borrowed  a  volume  of  an  encyclopaedia  he  learned 
from  it  the  technics  of  the  etching  process  and 
then  proceeded  to  etch  without  further  teaching. 
His  first  attempt  dates  from  1849." 

Beraldi  goes  on  to  state  that  Bracquemond's 
method  of  etching  was  always  simple  and  direct 
and  that  he  never  troubled  himself  by  making 
use  of  tricks  or  artifices  —  either  of  etching  or  of 
printing. 

Felix  Buhot's  work  is  in  strong  contrast  to 
that  of  Bracquemond.  Bracquemond  was  always 


204   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

strong  —  almost  harsh  in  his  work,  while  Buhot 
(without  ever  being  weak)  was  delicate  and 
refined,  and  made  use  of  the  whole  gamut  of  the 
etcher's  processes,  —  aquafortis,  dry-point,  aqua- 
tint, roulette;  in  fact  his  processes  were  very  com- 
plicated, although  they  never  overpassed  what  is 
legitimate  to  a  very  accomplished  technician. 

Personally  he  was  a  typical  embodiment  of 
the  Gallic  spirit,  both  in  its  vivid  brilliance  and 
in  its  unrest;  one  in  whom  the  lamp  of  life  burned 
with  an  intensity  quite  foreign  to  the  nature  of 
the  slower  (and  perhaps  surer)  mentality  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race.  His  brain  might  be  compared 
to  a  newly  opened  bottle  of  soda-water  or  of 
champagne.  While  he  was  at  work  etching  a 
plate  this  mental  effervescence  manifested  itself 
in  the  "symphonic  margins"  which  are  so  char- 
acteristic of  his  work.  He  would  fly  off  from  the 
main  composition  to  some  slight  but  brilliant 
sketch  in  the  margin  of  the  copper.  On  this 
subject  of  his  "symphonic  margins"  he  once  said 
to  the  present  writer:  "C'est  une  maladie, — je  le 
sais." 

Buhot  was  always  the  thorough  gentleman. 
He  was  almost  quixotic  in  this  respect;  but  the 
refinement  of  his  nature  was  very  genuine  and  he 
was  a  highly  educated  and  intellectual  man. 
After  his  death  in  1896  his  etched  work  had  the 
signal  honor  of  being  publicly  exhibited  for  six 
months  at  the  Luxembourg  Gallery,  Paris;  and 
the  distinguished  Curator,  Monsieur  Benedite, 
published  a  laudatory  and  sympathetic  article 


PORTRAIT  OF  FELIX  BUHOT 

Size  of  the  original  picture,  8  by  5^  inches. 

The  original  portrait  is  a  photograph  from  life,  around  which  the  artist  has  drawn 
a  "symphonic  margin."  The  distance,  showing  two  steeples,  represents  Buhot's 
native  town,  Valognes,  Normandy. 


WESTMINSTER    PALACE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  llf  by  15f  inches. 


WESTMINSTER   CLOCK  TOWER 

Size  of  the  original  print,  11  by  15^  inches. 

From  the  etchings  by  Felix  Buhot.  These  two  plates  are  usually  accounted 
Buhot's  masterpieces.  They  are  among  the  surest  and  most  completely  satis- 
fying of  all  his  works,  and,  in  the  Westminster  Clock  Tower,  especially,  he  has 
portrayed  wonderfully  the  smoky  but  mysterious  London  atmosphere. 


BRACQUEMOND  AND  BUHOT  205 

on  him  in  a  Paris  magazine.  No  artist  of  the 
nineteenth  century  was  more  thoroughly  orig- 
inal than  Felix  Buhot.  We  may  or  we  may  not 
admire  his  pictures,  but,  such  as  they  are,  they 
are  entirely  his  own  and  there  is  no  trace  of 
imitation  in  them. 


ALPHONSE  LEGROS 

SOME  artists  have  attained  to  fame  —  or  at 
least  to  notoriety  —  at  a  single  bound;  but 
Alphonse  Legros  is  not  one  of  these.  As 
painter,  etcher,  and  sculptor,  he  has  been  before 
the  public  for  more  than  fifty  years,  and  yet 
it  is  only  within  a  comparatively  recent  period 
that  he  has  been  accorded  his  rightful  place  as 
a  great  artist  and  a  great  etcher.  As  early  as 
1859  one  of  his  paintings  was  bought  by  so  dis- 
criminating a  judge  as  Seymour  Haden,  and  from 
the  beginning  of  his  career  a  few  clear-sighted 
persons  recognized  him  at  his  true  worth;  but 
the  general  recognition  which  he  now  enjoys  came 
long  after. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see  the  reasons  for  this. 
Legros  never  flattered  the  public  —  any  more  than 
Millet  did.  The  first  quality  to  attract  popular- 
ity is  superficial  prettiness,  and  to  this  Legros 
would  never  descend. 

The  French  make  a  wide  distinction  between 
the  pretty  and  the  beautiful  in  art.  A  less  en- 
lightened nation  would  never  have  adopted  their 
common  phrase  —  "beau  comme  un  Rembrandt" 
—  to  express  the  highest  praise  they  could  bestow 
on  a  work  of  art;  and  we  may  so  far  compare 
Legros  to  the  great  Rembrandt  as  to  say,  that 

206 


PORTRAIT  OF  ALPHOXSE  LEGROS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  5f  by  4j  inches. 
From  the  etching  by  Felix  Bracquemond. 


ALPHONSE  LEGROS  207 

while  the  works  of  both  artists  are  beautiful  in 
the  higher  sense,  not  one  of  them  is  "pretty." 

Moreover,  the  innovator  and  originator  must 
always  expect  a  period  of  neglect;  and  later  of 
detraction  and  opposition,  before  his  work  wins 
its  due  recognition.  Happily  for  Legros,  this 
recognition  has  come  to  him  while  he  still  has,  we 
trust,  many  years  before  him  wherein  to  enjoy 
his  honors;  while  in  the  case  of  Meryon  and  of 
Millet  it  came  too  late,  and  the  attitude  of  the 
public  toward  these  great  artists  was  like  that  of 
the  Jews  of  old,  who  reverently  built  the  sepulchers 
of  the  prophets  whom  their  fathers  had  stoned. 

In  America  the  superiority  of  contemporary 
French  art  is  conceded;  but  along  with  this 
admitted  superiority  there  are  certain  other  char- 
acteristics which  are  supposed  to  be  inseparable 
from  it.  Besides  great  technical  cleverness  we 
expect  to  find  sprightly  Gallic  vivacity,  which 
often  degenerates  into  the  theatrical,  the  coquet- 
tish, or  the  insincere.  What  place  then  shall  we 
assign  to  an  artist  who  is  so  serious,  so  profound,, 
and  so  devoid  of  all  that  is  meretricious  and 
flippant,  that  we  almost  wonder  he  was  not  born 
in  the  solemn  times  of  Dante,  or  Luther,  or  Sa- 
vonarola, instead  of  being  a  modern  Frenchman? 

Born  at  Dijon  in  1837,  Legros  removed  to  Paris 
in  1857,  but  in  1863  established  himself  in  England, 
where  he  has  become  naturalized,  and  where  he 
long  and  honorably  filled  the  dignified  post  of 
Slade  Professor  of  Art  at  the  University  of 
London. 


208   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

In  a  lecture  delivered  by  Mr.  Howard  Mans- 
field of  New  York,  before  the  Grolier  Club,  on 
the  etched  work  of  Professor  Legros,  that  dis- 
tinguished connoisseur  well  says: 

"This    etched    work,    while    at    times    frankly 

realistic,   is   at   times   highly   imaginative;   while 

often  coarse  in  execution,  yet  shows  examples  of 

/unsurpassed    delicacy;    while    uncompromisingly 

/  ugly  in  some  of  its  aspects,  is  in  others  strikingly 

/  beautiful.     But  through  it  all  runs  one  unfailing 

J  note  —  the  note  of  sympathy. 

"Legros  is  a  man  of  intense  personality,  an 
artist  with  rare  singleness  of  purpose  and  a  not- 
able disregard  of  fashion  or  popular  favor.  From 
the  first  he  has  done  his  work  in  his  own  way, 
choosing  his  own  time,  and  following  with  utter 
disregard  of  results,  so  far  as  the  public  are  con- 
cerned, his  own  ideas  and  conceptions.  As  a 
consequence  of  this  peculiar  temperament  and 
also,  I  think,  of  the  sympathy  to  which  reference 
has  already  been  made,  his  work  is  unlike  any 
other  which  this  generation  has  seen.  It  is  severe, 
it  is  formal,  it  is  varying;  does  not  aim  to  be 
beautiful,  although  it  often  is  beautiful  seemingly 
in  spite  of  intention;  and  it  is  grave  to  such  a 
t  degree  as  fairly  to  justify  Mr.  Wedmore,  the 
]  London  critic,  in  applying  to  the  artist  the  title 
lof  'Belated  Old  Master.' 

"  In  no  class  of  subjects  has  Legros  shown  deeper 
interest  and  in  none  does  his  art  show  a  wider 
range  of  sympathy  than  in  his  treatment  of  vari- 
ous phases  of  the  life  of  religious  people.  The 


DEATH  AND  THE  WOODMAN 

Size  of  the  original  print,  12t  by  9j  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Alphonse  Legros.  A  very  characteristic  etching.  There  is 
not  another  artist  of  the  nineteenth  century  who  could  have  treated  such  a 
subject  in  a  manner  at  once  so  simple  and  direct,  and,  at  the  same  time,  so 
I  poetical. 


< 


ALPHONSE  LEGROS  209 

monks  at  their  devotions  or  at  their  work,  the 
men  and  women  performing  religious  duties, 
the  bell-ringers  at  their  tasks  —  all  of  these  ap- 
pear in  Legros'  etchings;  sometimes  sketched  with 
simple  fidelity  and  sometimes  with  a  rare  delicacy 
and  expressiveness,  but  always  with  a  sympa- 
thetic appreciation  of  the  sincerity  and  self- 
denial  of  their  lives.  The  frivolous  monk  and  the 
self-indulgent  monk  do  not  appear  in  Legros' 
pictures.  For  them  he  appears  to  have  no  thought. 
There  is  no  gaiety  anywhere  in  his  work:  no  one 
even  smiles.  The  serene  pleasure  in  music  comes 
nearest  in  expression  to  anything  like  joy." 

Some  etchers  have  become  famous  for  their 
figure  compositions  only,  others  for  landscape 
only,  others  again  for  their  portaits;  but  Legros, 
like  Rembrandt,  has  etched  all  these  subjects  — 
and  it  is  not  easy  to  say  in  which  of  them  he 
excels,  seeing  that  he  has  produced  masterpieces 
in  them  all.  His  recent  work  in  landscape  far 
surpasses  his  earlier  work  in  beauty,  while  some 
of  his  later  portraits  show  a  magnificent  power 
of  modeling,  worthy  of  any  sculptor. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  such  a  thoroughly 
original  artist  as  Legros  should  impress  his  per- 
sonality powerfully  upon  his  pupils.  At  the  Royal 
Academy  exhibitions  it  is  easy  to  recognize  their 
work;  while  in  the  case  of  one  of  them  —  the  able 
etcher  William  Strang  —  it  is  difficult  to  imagine 
what  the  work  would  have  been  if  it  had  lacked 
the  influence  of  Legros. 

To  show  what  sound  doctrines  these  pupils  are 


210       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

taught,   the  following  extracts  from   an   address 
by  Professor  Legros  to  his  class  may  be  cited: 

"I  wish  to  impress  more  and  more  strongly 
upon  you  the  necessity  of  studying  your  models 
with  such  a  thoroughness  as  to  get  them  by  heart. 
To  that  end  persistent  drawing  must  be  kept  up. 
Drawing  and  drawing  evermore  should  be  the 
student's  motto  (and  the  true  artist  is  ever  a 
student).  We  see  that  the  old  masters  made  a 
practice  of  drawing,  and  drawing  much,  and  with 
a  pains  and  earnestness  which,  if  imitated  by  us, 
would  give  us  more  of  their  power.  Often  the 
same  figure,  or  parts  of  it,  would  be  drawn  over 
and  over  again,  the  artist  mastering  and  learning 
it  by  heart. 

...  You  have  here,  for  instance,  a  repro- 
duction of  Michael  Angelo's  study  for  the  figure  of 
Adam,  in  the  Sistine  Chapel.  The  more  we  study  it 
the  better  we  shall  learn  to  feel  the  beauty  of  its 
action,  and  form,  and  execution.  Every  stroke, 
every  line,  is  an  indispensable  one:  nothing  without 
its  use;  nothing  superfluous;  the  last  stroke  is  put 
with  certainty  and  judgment  in  its  right  place. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  express  with  less  work 
the  massive  litheness  of  the  torso,  or  the  model- 
ing of  the  arms  and  legs.  From  this  drawing  he 
painted  the  beautiful  figure  in  the  immortal 
fresco. 

...  In  the  present  day  one  of  the  most 
fatal  things  to  your  artistic  improvement  is  the 
hurry  to  work  for  exhibitions;  yet  it  is  hardly  an 
enviable  distinction  to  add  an  indifferent  picture 


PORTRAIT  OF  SIR  EDWARD  J.   POYNTER,   P.R.A. 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8|  by  6j  inches. 

From  the  dry-point  by  Alphonse  Legros.  This  fine  portrait,  so  full  of  character, 
is  one  of  Legros'  finest  plates,  and,  together  with  the  portrait  of  Dalou,  the  sculp- 
tor, ranks  among  the  masterpieces  of  nineteenth-century  prints. 


PORTRAIT  OF  THE  SCULPTOR,  DALOU 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8J  by  6  inches. 

From  the  dry-point  by  Alphonse  Legros.     In  this  portrait  again,  "style"  is  evi- 
dent in  every  line.     The  means  are  so  simple,  the  result  so  satisfactory! 


ALPHONSE  LEGROS  211 

to  the  already  too  great  number  of  bad  ones. 
Better,  by  good  and  patient  work  and  prolonged 
study,  to  get  a  power  which  will  enable  you  to 
come  well  armed  for  the  fray. 

...  You  need  not  fear  the  loss  of  your  indi- 
viduality, which,  after  all,  will  be  worth  nothing 
unless  you  have  the  knowledge  and  observation  to 
bring  it  out. 

;   .  .  .  The  man  who  can  draw  may  undertake 

anything  in  art.  .  .  .  To  long  to  do  really  good 

work,  to  delight  in  attacking  and  triumphing  over 

difficulties,  is  one  of  the  greatest  secrets  of  success. 

"The  more  you  study  the  great  masters,  the 

(more  you  will  see  that  with  them  there  was 
no  hurry;  there  was  but  the  patient  and  steady 
aim  at  good  work  —  the  earnest  striving  after 
perfection.*' 

V 


EVERT  VAN  MUYDEN 

PAINTER-ETCHER 

THE  sincere  artist  soon  discovers  the  medium 
through  which  he  can  best  express  himself. 
If  his  feeling  for  form  predominates  he  will  be 
a  sculptor;  if  his  sense  of  color  is  strongest  he  will 
be  a  painter,  and  if  a  general  and  rapid  realiza- 
tion of  the  ensemble  of  a  scene  or  object  is  what 
impresses  itself  upon  him  most  vividly  he  will 
best  express  this  predominant  impression  through 
etching. 

It  is  an  unusual  thing  to  find  a  painter-etcher 
of  genuine  talent  who  is  almost  unknown  to  the 
art-loving  public  of  the  United  States.  Amer- 
icans cannot  justly  be  accused  of  neglect  toward 
this  very  interesting  and  essentially  artistic  branch 
of  the  graphic  arts. 

The  genius  of  our  national  character  and  the 
genius  of  painter-etching  have  this  in  common 
—  that  both  are  practical,  rapid,  and  direct, 
disliking  and  avoiding  all  that  is  tedious  and 
superfluous,  and  desiring  above  all  to  arrive  at  the 
essential  core  of  things. 

This  being  so  it  is  not  surprising  that  in  no 
city  in  the  world  are  there  so  many  really  good 
private  collections  of  etchings  as  in  New  York, 
and  this  is  proportionately  true  of  several  other 
cities  in  the  United  States. 

212 


EVERT  VAN  MUYDEN  213 

The  renowned  French  painter  Meissonier  used 
to  say  that  when  he  sold  a  painting  to  an  Amer- 
ican he  considered  his  picture  to  be  as  totally  lost 
as  if  it  had  been  sunk  in  the  sea.  The  great  man 
took  our  money  in  enormous  sums,  but  —  right 
or  wrong  —  he  had  a  very  poor  opinion  of  our 
knowledge  and  taste. 

On  the  other  hand  the  English  artist  Sir  Seymour 
Haden  frankly  declares  that  he  would  rather  see 
his  works  go  to  the  United  States  than  to  any 
other  country  in  the  world;  his  reason  being  that 
here  they  are  better  understood  and  appreciated 
than  anywhere  else.  Sir  Seymour  Haden  has 
recently  made  the  interesting  remark  that  among 
the  great  numbers  of  letters  which  he  has  received 
on  the  subject  of  etching,  both  in  his  private 
capacity  and  as  president  of  the  British  Royal 
Society  of  Painter-Etchers,  the  most  intelligent 
of  all  have  come  to  him  from  distant  Oregon. 

When  we  remember  that  of  all  the  different 
forms  of  the  graphic  art,  painter-etching  is  the 
least  showy  and  ostentatious,  it  is  gratifying  to 
receive  such  testimony  as  Sir  Seymour  Haden's 
on  the  genuine  taste  and  knowledge  that  exist 
in  America;  and  it  is  all  the  more  remarkable 
that  a  painter-etcher  of  Van  Muyden's  ability 
should  hitherto  be  almost  unknown  here,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  his  etchings  won  a  medal 
at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1899  and  that  he  has 
also  won  distinction  at  the  Paris  Salon. 

If  he  were  called  upon  to  account  for  this  lack 
of  popularity  in  America  he  could  only  urge  in 


214   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

extenuation  what  William  Pitt  once  urged  on  a 
famous  occasion:  —  "The  atrocious  crime  of  being 
a  young  man."  But  his  work  is  so  genuinely 
good  that  notwithstanding  his  modesty  regarding 
it,  he  must  soon  become  well  known  —  just  as 
surely  as  that  Time  will  silently  and  gradually 
remove  from  us  all  the  drawback  of  being  "young." 

Van  Muyden's  nationality  is  a  somewhat 
complicated  matter.  Born  near  Rome  of  Swiss 
parentage,  he  is  legally  a  citizen  of  Geneva;  in  ap- 
pearance he  is  quite  Italian,  and  yet  both  his  Chris- 
tian name  and  surname  are  pure  Holland  Dutch; 
but  he  resides  in  Paris  and  speaks  French  like  a 
Parisian. 

Notwithstanding  this  rather  intricate  extrac- 
tion, there  is  nothing  indefinite  or  scattered  in 
his  art.  Although  his  portrait,  etched  by  him- 
self, is  evidence  of  his  power  in  that  direction,  and 
although  the  accessory  landscapes  in  several  of 
his  plates  show  that  he  understands  landscape 
thoroughly,  yet  he  has  devoted  himself  definitely 
to  the  career  of  "Un  Animalier"  —  as  he  calls 
himself,  and  among  the  animals  his  preference  is 
for  the  savage  wild  carnivora. 

His  immediate  predecessor  in  this  particular 
line  of  art  was  the  late  August  Langon,  who,  like 
Van  Muyden,  found  that  he  could  best  express 
himself  through  etching. 

Langon  was  an  able  man,  but  there  is  a  certain 
mannerism  in  all  his  wild  animals  which  makes 
them  resemble  each  other  unduly,  although  in 
nature  this  resemblance  does  not  exist. 


E.  VAN  ritr 


EVERT  VAN   MUYDEX,   AT  THE  AGE  OF  THIRTY-SEVEN 

Size  of  the  original  print,  6  by  4j  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Evert  van  Muyden.  It  is  interesting  to  contrast  this  por- 
trait with  that  of  Felix  Buhot  —  the  one  quiet,  direct,  reserved,  the  other 
restless  and  "tormented." 


"-^    3    S 
H«>  3    =S  _n 

2;  ®«  «  « 

g  *r  S  _g  5 
O  -E  >^H*o 

PH     P-^E         4> 


i-H       O       I<2    0, 

Ijlfl 


EVERT  VAN  MUYDEN  215 

Charles  Jacque  confined  himself  to  such  tame 
or  gentle  creatures  as  horses,  sheep,  and  swine, 
and  the  English  master,  Sir  Edwin  Landseer, 
who  deservedly  enjoyed  a  great  reputation,  yet 
had  the  fault  of  imparting  human  facial  expres- 
sions to  his  animals.  This  probably  had  much 
to  do  toward  Landseer's  great  popularity  and 
success;  nevertheless  it  was  false  to  nature. 

It  is  high  praise  to  compare  Van  Muyden's 
animals  to  those  of  two  great  French  masters  of 
the  preceding  generation;  but  while  it  would  be 
absurd  to  claim  for  this  artist  that  he  is  already 
a  second  Barye  or  a  second  Eugene  Delacroix,  yet 
in  examining  his  works  one  is  often  reminded  of 
the  great  sculptor  and  the  great  modern  master 
of  color  —  not  because  Van  Muyden  has  copied 
them,  but  because  all  three  artists  went  straight 
to  nature  for  their  models. 

Those  who  know  Barye' s  bronzes  will  bear 
witness  to  this  resemblance  between  him  and  Van 
Muyden;  and  although  Eugene  Delacroix  never 
could  manage  the  technical  processes  of  etching 
successfully,  yet  he  has  done  some  lithographs 
of  wild  animals  which  hold  equal  rank  with  his 
magnificent  paintings. 

Van  Muyden  is  a  studious,  quiet  and  contented 
man,  modest  in  his  estimate  of  his  own  powers 
and  very  unlike  the  regulation  type  of  the  Paris 
"rapin."  The  witty  Parisians  have  a  nickname 
for  everything,  and  very  pungent  slang  expres- 
sions come  in  and  go  out  from  year  to  year;  but 
the  word  rapin  continues  to  describe  the  tribe  of 


216   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

alleged  "artists"  whose  genius  is  loudly  advertised 
by  the  wild  eye,  the  long  and  untidy  hair,  and  the 
general  eccentricity  of  their  attire.  These  gentry 
are  very  voluble  and  often  even  eloquent,  but  their 
nerves  are  generally  in  such  a  condition  of  ten- 
sion and  exaltation  that  it  is  a  wonder  they  live 
and  retain  their  faculties  even  for  as  long  as  they 
do. 

The  "rapin"  has  been  introduced  for  purposes  of 
contrast  with  Evert  Van  Muyden.  It  is  in  part 
the  difference  between  the  placid  serious  man  who 
smokes  an  honest  pipe  (as  Carlyle  and  as  Tenny- 
son did)  and  the  high-strung  creature  who  keeps 
himself  up  on  cigarettes,  absinthe,  and  black 
coffee.  Our  artist  does  not  spend  long  hours  daily 
and  nightly  at  the  Chat  Noir,  the  Moulin  Rouge, 
and  similar  nocturnal  resorts  where  "rapins"  most 
do  congregate;  but  he  is  often  to  be  seen  in  the 
quiet  early  mornings  at  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  or 
the  Jardin  d'Acclimatation  absorbed  in  sketching 
or  else  in  contemplating  the  fierce  carnivora 
behind  the  bars,  as  they  skulk  from  end  to  end 
of  their  prison  or  as  they  lie  down  with  a  far-away 
glare  in  their  baleful  eyes.  He  has  even  found 
out  that  these  morose  creatures  soon  learn  to 
become  attached  to  any  one  who  brings  them  a 
handful  of  fresh  grass  as  a  sort  of  salad  to  their 
daily  meal  of  horseflesh. 

Van  Muyden's  concentration  and  his  sureness 
of  hand  are  such  that  some  of  his  finest  plates 
have  been  etched  from  these  original  studies  after 
nature  with  very  little  subsequent  addition  or 


EVERT  VAN  MUYDEN  217 

alteration.  This  same  soreness  of  mind  and  hand 
relieve  him  of  the  necessity  of  printing  a  series 
of  different  tentative  "states"  of  his  plate  before 
he  considers  it  finished.  Instances  have  occurred 
in  which  plates  of  his  did  not  please  him,  but  in 
such  cases  instead  of  laboriously  trying  to  get 
them  right  he  has  destroyed  them  and  begun 
others. 

When  his  plate  is  finished  he  prints  a  small 
edition  of  proofs  with  scrupulous  care.  One  of 
these  is  always  reserved  for  the  Art  Museum  of 
Geneva,  which  is  making  a  systematic  collection 
of  his  works.  Other  proofs  are  reserved  for 
"mes  amateurs"  —  as  he  calls  his  private  patrons 
in  Europe,  and  what  remain  are  placed  in  the 
hands  of  his  publishers. 

But  his  facility  of  production  is  so  great  that 
instead  of  exploiting  the  same  plate  year  after 
year  he  prefers  to  limit  the  number  of  proofs  of 
each  to  about  twenty-five,  and  when  his  limit  is 
reached  he  destroys  his  plate  and  makes  a  new  one 
of  some  other  subject.  This,  from  the  connois- 
seur's point  of  view,  is  a  refreshing  system  at  a 
time  when  the  London  Printsellers'  Association' 
will  stamp  and  guarantee  three,  four,  or  five 
hundred  "artist's  proofs"  of  a  plate,  and  when 
the  distinguished  architectural  etcher,  Haig,  will 
sign  and  publish  as  many  artist's  proofs  of  one 
of  his. 

The  characteristic  of  spontaneity,  so  essential 
to  the  painter-etcher,  is  equally  essential  to  the 
production  of  good  drawings  in  water  color.  A 


218   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

true  water  color,  far  from  being  a  feeble  and  diluted 
imitation  of  a  painting,  in  oil,  has  a  character,  a 
refinement  and  a  beauty  all  its  own;  and  in 
water  color  painting  as  in  etching,  the  picture 
will  never  "come  right"  at  all  unless  it  comes 
right  from  the  first.  And  so  it  happens  that  the 
endowments  which  have  made  Van  Muyden  a 
notable  etcher  have  made  him  an  admirable 
aquarellist  as  well.  In  his  water  colors  we  have 
all  his  quality  of  fine  design  and  masterly  drawing 
with  the  charm  of  rich  and  harmonious  color 
superadded. 

Besides  his  etchings,  water  colors,  detached 
drawings  and  some  paintings  in  oil,  there  exist 
in  the  cabinets  of  a  few  tasteful  and  wealthy 
book-lovers  certain  volumes  whose  value  Van 
Muyden  has  increased  a  hundred-fold  by  the 
numerous  illustrations  which  he  has  sketched  with 
the  pen,  India-ink,  or  aquarelle  on  the  broad  mar- 
gins of  the  pages,  and  he  has  done  it  with  a 
fertility  of  invention,  a  refinement  and  a  deli- 
cacy that  would  delight  the  fastidious  soul  of  a 
member  of  the  Grolier  Club  —  or  any  other  "soul" 
that  takes  delight  in  what  is  beautiful,  artistic 
and  rare. 

Each  of  these  volumes  is  unique.  The  artist 
never  illustrates  more  than  one  of  a  kind;  and 
when  we  consider  that  the  failure  of  even  one 
such  illustration,  among  fifty  or  more,  would 
ruin  the  whole  volume  (remembering  that  these 
illustrations  are  not  drawn  on  blank  sheets  of 
paper,  but  upon  the  blank  margin  of  the  printed 


LION   ON  A   ROCK 

Size  of  the  original  print,  6^  by  4f  inches. 

From  the  etching  by  Evert  van  Muyden.  The  artist  has  given  us,  with  a  singu- 
lar "economy  of  means,"  the  very  spirit  of  the  scene.  Every  line  is  full  of 
purpose,  and  not  a  line  too  many. 


•8*9  S3 

_fl          3 

H«  X  tj 
®»'3  <S 
1—1  t-i  ~ 


H 

H  *?° 


ffi 


5-i* 

„_        to 

III 
CD      *B 


u  e 

0)    3 

e  o 


PH    °  *3 
g  ^,1  I 

w  ^dl 

^^       ^   ^ 

cd  J2  s^3 

a  *J j  . 

HI«"S 

n   a>1 

^*       ^-H 

O  -S  S 
^  .SP  >-2 

FH     E  rvi 


H   •*" 
ffi  *o  S). 
H    o^.S 


EVERT  VAN  MUYDEN  219 

page   itself)    we   have   a  supreme   illustration   of  ' 
Van  Muyden's  sureness  of  hand. 

The  researches  of  Francis  Galton  and  his  fol- 
lowers have  demonstrated  the  importance  of 
heredity;  not  only  are  general  physical  and  mental 
characteristics  transmitted  from  ancestors  to  their 
descendants  but  special  aptitudes  also. 

It  may  be  sound  doctrine,  in  a  republic,  to 
insist  that  any  one  man  is  the  equal  of  any  other 
man  —  but  it's  not  true!  And  there  are  "thor- 
oughbreds" among  men  as  surely  as  there  are 
among  horses,  cattle  or  dogs.  Moreover,  it  is 
certain  that  a  large  part  of  our  endowment  of 
character,  taste,  opinions,  and  aptitudes  has 
been  indelibly  acquired  before  the  age  of  ten  years, 
and  that,  as  Wordsworth  says,  the  child  really 
is  "father  of  the  man,"  so  that  both  through 
heredity  and  early  associations  some  men  have  an 
unusually  good  start  in  life.  Thus  both  Joseph 
Jefferson  and  Edwin  Booth  were  descended  from 
a  race  of  actors;  Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  the 
son  of  a  preacher,  and  Adelina  Patti's  father 
and  mother  gained  their  livelihood  through  the 
opera. 

Similarly,  Van  Muyden  has  had  the  great  advan- 
tage of  having  been  cradled  in  art.  His  father 
is  an  able  and  erudite  artist  in  Geneva,  where 
another  of  his  sons  follows  the  same  profession, 
and  our  artist  himself  spends  much  of  his  time  at 
his  father's  home.  But  whether  in  Paris  or 
Geneva  he  seems  to  be  utterly  devoid  of  the  arts 
and  tricks  of  the  self-advertiser. 


220   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Quiet,  retired,  and  industrious,  his  wants  are 
few  and  what  fame  has  come  to  him  has  come 
without  his  seeking. 

Among  his  works  we  see  the  royal  dignity  of 
the  great  lion  as  he  reclines  on  a  ledge  of  rock 
among  the  desolate  mountains,  —  monarch  of  all 
he  surveys. 

Again  we  see  two  great  tigers  outside  a  mysteri- 
ous tropical  forest.  One  mounts  guard,  alert  and 
fierce,  while  the  other  drinks.  The  composition 
and  drawing  of  this  picture  may  be  called  masterly; 
the  gloomy  background  is  full  of  character,  while 
the  drawing  of  the  drinking  tiger  is  simply  won- 
derful; the  lithe  and  powerful  beast  is  actually 
alive. 

We  do  not  know  if  that  strange,  weird  poet 
and  painter,  William  Blake,  ever  painted  a  tiger 
—  but  he  could  have  done  it  grandly  or  he  never 
could  have  written  that  poem  commencing: 

Tiger!  tiger!  burning  bright, 
In  the  forests  of  the  night: 
What  immortal  hand  or  eye 
Could  frame  thy  fearful  symmetry? 

In  the  drawing  representing  a  mounted  Arab 
attacked  by  a  lioness  both  the  horse  and  his  rider 
are  mad  with  terror;  and  so  is  the  buffalo  upon 
which  a  lion  has  sprung. 

But  we  turn  from  these  dreadful  scenes  to  the 
touching  maternal  solicitude  of  the  lioness  who 
watches  over  her  sleeping  cubs  and  to  the  kitten- 
ish gravity  of  the  two  larger  cubs  who  have  as 


- 


«*  "2 


£  &> 


O      ?    1    C 

O   S.2** 

&•-**£ 
i-J  -Sf  c  -S 


O  -c   e   c^   SC 


a  -3    , 

w 


*  - 
o  § 

— 

Q  2 


. 


W    c  » 

Pi   .S    3 


H   "e8    >    C 

-     -  —     -  —        — 


Q  ? 

(J     g' 

O  ;s 


c 

cS  j; 


3  ^ 
«t-i  M 
^  3 


-^    •-* 

^        — 

JJ    | 

a 


EVERT  VAN  MUYDEN  221 

yet  done  no  harm  to  any  living  thing.  All  young 
animals  are  pretty  and  interesting  —  although 
most  unfledged  young  birds  are  eminently  ugly 
and  repulsive. 

Let  us  conclude  by  noticing  the  etching  of  a 
subject  that  is  full  of  kindliness  and  good  feeling. 
The  artist  calls  his  picture  "Old  Servants,  Pen- 
sioned Off."  In  a  comfortable  paddock  near 
the  farm-house,  an  old  white  horse  and  an  old 
gray  donkey,  worn  and  broken,  with  time  and 
faithful  labor,  are  restf ully  passing  away  the  even- 
ing of  their  days,  at  peace  with  each  other  and 
with  all  the  world.  Many  and  many  a  poor 
faithful  worn-out  "hack"  has  been  mercilessly 
driven  to  the  bone-yard  just  as  soon  as  it  was 
found  that  he  could  work  no  longer,  —  and  we 
feel  grateful  to  Van  Muyden  that  he  has  given 
us  this  picture  of  the  peace  and  comfort  of  these 
two  meritorious  though  now  ugly  and  useless 
animals. 


JOSEPH  PENNELL 

ETCHER,  ILLUSTRATOR,  AUTHOR 

Reprinted,  by  permission,  from  "The  Outlook" 

Behind  his  back  men  call  him  Joe, 

But  Joseph  Pennell  is  his  name; 
A  loyal  friend,  —  he's  always  so, 

An  Artist  winning  honest  fame: 
That  he's  perverse,  alas!   is  true, 
Yet  he's  himself  —  que  voulez  nous? 

F.  K. 

AMONG  producers  of  fine  pictures  of  vari- 
ous kinds  it  is  the  able  and  original  illus- 
trator who  most  quickly  wins  recognition  and 
fame,  and  of  all  artists  it  is  he  who  is  the 
most  necessary  and  beneficial  to  civilization. 
Literature  (including  the  daily  press)  is  certainly 
the  most  enormous  power  for  good  that  we  know, 
but  many  books  and  periodicals  would  be  maimed 
and  incomplete  if  unaided  by  an  illustrator  of 
the  right  sort.  For  example,  what  a  loss  it  would 
have  been  if  that  familiar  little  masterpiece, 
Lewis  Carroll's  Alice  in  Wonderland  had  been 
originally  printed  and  published  without  the  ad- 
mirable illustrations  of  Sir  John  Tenniel. 

Unfortunately,  this  happy  unity  between  author 
i  and  artist  is  none  too  general,  and  many  contem- 
porary illustrations,  although  not  necessarily  bad 
as  pictures,  are  nevertheless  "from  the  purpose," 

<  222 


W 


An  excellent  likeness  of  Joseph  Pennell 


/^  H^4 


Reproduction,  in  reduced  size,  of  a  letter  from  Joseph  Pennell,  who  writes  an- 
nouncing the  fact  that  he  has  finished  the  printing  of  his  etchings  of  London. 
Through  the  window  is  seen  a  view  of  London,  with  St.  Paul's  in  the  distance. 
It  will  be  seen  by  this  sketch  that  the  printing-press,  as  well  as  the  artist  him- 
self, are  dreadfully  fatigued.  Wet  proofs  of  the  etchings  are  spread  all  over 
the  floor. 


JOSEPH  PENNELL  223 

as  Hamlet  says,  and  actually  fight  against  and    ft 
weaken  the  text  which  they  attempt  to  elucidate 
and  emphasize.  * 

Next  after  the  illustrator  it  is  probably  the 
really  able  original  etcher  to  whom  fame  comes 
quickly;  and  after  him,  in  a  descending  scale, 
come  the  portrait-painter,  then  the  painter  of 
other  subjects,  and,  last  of  all  in  order  of  quick 
promotion,  the  scupltor.  His  statue  or  group 
cannot  easily  be  multiplied,  is  difficult  to  move 
from  place  to  place,  and  for  these  reasons  must 
long  remain  comparatively  unknown,  while,  on 
the  contrary,  the  picture  of  the  illustrator  is 
examined  by  thousands  of  people  in  thousands 
of  different  places  from  the  very  day  of  its  birth. 

Of  the  many  famous  painters  who  thus  won 
early  recognition  by  means  of  etching  or  illustra- 
ting, or  through  both,  I  may  mention  Whistler, 
Sir  John  Everett  Millais  (late  President  of  the 
Royal  Academy,  London),  the  Frenchmen  Meis- 
sonier  and  Charles  Jacque,  and  one  of  our  fa- 
mous Philadelphians,  Edwin  A.  Abbey,  R.  A.  In 
company  with  these  eminent  names  we  may  place 
the  name  of  Mr.  Pennell.  If,  unlike  the  others, 
he  is  not  yet  famous  as  a  painter,  it  is  solely 
because  the  publishers  and  the  public  have  not 
hitherto  allowed  him  the  time  necessary  for  the  40  j  /|,* 
making  of  oil  paintings,  water  colors,  and  pastels;  *  *  +  ^  ^+99+*+ 
but  he  has  produced  a  few  beautiful  pictures  voRt  ./ ~^»  /fa  **  + 

these  mediums,  although  he  has  not  yet  exhibited  /<r/~~  >    ^1 

<***+**+  •-  +• 

them.  /        ~ 

Joseph    Pennell  —  like    Whistler,    Abbey,    and  *^    O 


224       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

other  famous  artists  of  American  birth — has  won 
name  and  fame  in  Europe  before  American  recog- 
nition came  to  him.  He  comes  of  good  old  Quaker 
stock,  and  was  born  at  Philadelphia  on  the  fourth 
of  July,  1860.  He  is  the  son  of  the  late  Larkin 
Pennell,  who  was  an  eminent  member  of  the  Soci- 
ety of  Friends,  and  whose  first  American  ancestor 
came  to  our  shores  in  company  with  William  Penn 
when  the  latter  made  his  second  voyage  from 
England  to  the  province  of  Pennsylvania. 

I  think  that  pictorial  art  —  like  music,  rich 
dress,  and  certain  other  artistic  but  worldly 
vanities  —  was  disallowed  by  the  sternly  con- 
scientious first  followers  of  George  Fox;  but,  be 
that  as  it  may,  Joseph  Pennell  from  his  early 
boyhood  was  resolved  to  become  an  artist,  and 
that  indomitable  "backbone"  which  distinguishes 
him  as  a  man  must  have  made  difficult  things 
easy  for  him  as  a  boy. 

His  training  began  at  the  Philadelphia  Indus- 
trial Art  School,  and  was  continued  and  com- 
pleted at  the  Pennsylvania  Academy  of  Fine 
Arts.  This  was  during  the  years  when  that 
admirable  man,  the  late  James  L.  Claghorn,  was 
its  President.  Mr.  Claghorn  belonged  to  the 
very  best  type  of  American  citizenship;  one  of 
those  essentially  "big"  and  forceful  men  —  presi- 
dent of  this,  chairman  of  that,  trustee  of  the  other 
public  institution,  but  withal  thoroughly  demo- 
cratic and  quite  devoid  of  all  pretense  or  self- 
importance.  This  was  the  man  who  first  made  me 
acquainted  with  the  work  of  Joseph  Pennell, 


w   cj 


*»—"•. --=: 


!  "VV;V' 

x    . 
5^?       -    '  < 

-  v     •  ,         ,    ,        ^.. 

» 


•?tyl 


*«- 

- 
'« 


5*  i 

"  «_    X 


x      -s 

O         "3 


.•,£*      ;r 

X l-v 

^^^  ' /          ' 

X  '  Jbl^f1"^.  *^*~ 

,'  ,7j^;v 

'         ^/     :^ 


?  c  o 

^u 

"  I  * 

T3I-J  - 


-c/A"'  "">  -w  "~ 


4r/*-j%'-^-'  •  '      .:  -'  -.1 


'"": 


S4J  *•> 
on     _  -^   cj 

ailii 


*f >*  « 

C  -^    a>    . 


'     -* 

u«j     a  ^-5. *s 
i.^     l-lll"-5 

H  "E^ 

^*(         ^,   ^^ 


O   °=S'S 


H    o  'So  ^ 

D    «'E-S 


2  "- 
~  "3o 


ROUEN:  FROM   BON   SECOURS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7f  by  12|  inches. 


ST.   MARTIN'S   BRIDGE,   TOLEDO 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7|  by  10  inches. 
From  the  etchings  by  Joseph  Pennell. 


JOSEPH  PENNELL  225 

who  was  not  then  twenty  years  old,  and  I  well 
remember  the  glow  of  pride  on  Mr.  Claghorn's 
handsome  face  as  he  showed  me  certain  etchings 
representing  street  scenes  in  Philadelphia,  and 
his  remark,  "This  is  original  work  by  one  of  our 
own  boys;  now  what  do  you  say  to  that!9' 

These  first  essays  of  the  "  'prentice  hand"  were 
little  more  than  the  prophecy  of  what  the  master 
hand  was  to  do  later,  and  yet  they  were  full  of 
good  augury.  Some  of  the  essential  qualities 
were  already  manifest  —  such  as  the  unerring 
eye  for  the  picturesque,  and  also  that  instinct 
for  good  drawing  which  we  may  compare  to  the 
delicate  natural  ear  for  music  which  renders  it 
almost  impossible  for  its  happy  possessor  to  sing 
a  note  out  of  tune.  In  both  cases  competent 
instructors  can  —  and  indeed  must  —  develop  and 
educate  the  gift  which  is  inborn  in  a  true  artist, 
but  if  this  gift  is  not  there,  the  teachers  can  never 
create  it. 

In  the  vital  quality  of  appropriateness  as  con- 
trasted with  irrelevancy,  Mr.  Pennell's   illustra- 
tions are  certainly  unsurpassed;  and  it  would  be 
as  difficult  to  find  among  them  a  picture  which 
does  not  materially  aid  the  text  as  it  would  be  to 
find  one  which,  in  itself,  is  not  a  veritable  work 
of  art.     But  besides  his  acknowledged  power  as 
!  a    draughtsman    for    illustration,    his    technical 
knowledge   of   reproductive   processes   gives   him 
la  distinct  advantage  over  most  of  his  confreres, 
•  so  that  his  drawing  is  pretty  sure  to  "print"  well 
in  the  page  of  a  magazine  or  a  book,  because  he 


/ 


226   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 


knows  so  well  how  to  make  his  picture  with  that 
I  particular  end  in  view. 

Another  rare  endowment  is  his  peculiar  faculty 
for  giving  to  each  one  of  his  pictures  its  own 
true  local  aspect,  so  that  there  is  no  mistaking  an 
American  for  an  English  scene  or  a  Spanish  for 
an  Italian  view.  Very  few  artists  possess  this 
faculty  of  discarding  their  own  particular  national 
point  of  view  and  of  absorbing  the  changed 
character  of  different  foreign  countries — no  two 
of  which  are  alike.  The  opposite  condition  is 
strongly  felt  in  the  case  of  the  portraits  of  Amer- 
icans whom  we  know,  and  which  are  painted 
here  by  visiting  foreign  artists  of  considerable 
reputation;  such  pictures  may  display  all  the 
brilliant  cleverness  of  the  modern  French  school, 
and  may  even  be  good  as  likenesses,  yet  we  are 
sure  to  suffer  from  the  "Frenchy"  flavor  which 
the  foreign  artist  has  unconsciously  superadded. 

But  all  this  while  we  are  leaving  Joseph  Pennell 
as  a  promising  young  art  student  in  peaceful, 
Philadelphia,  whereas  his  fame  was  to  be  won  a 
thousand  leagues  from  his  native  city.  We  must 
follow  him  to  Europe,  whither  he  went  in  the 
year  1884;  but,  if  we  let  him  go  there  alone,  this 
chronicle  would  be  so  incomplete  as  to  be  quite 
worthless.  Another  good  Philadelphian  must  go 
with  him,  so  inseparable  for  the  last  twenty  years 
is  the  work  of  the  two,  although  the  one  never 
does  the  particular  work  of  the  other. 

I  well  remember  hearing  that  man  of  genius, 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  say  in  a  sermon,  "When 


GREENWICH  PARK,   NUMBER  TWO 

Size  of  the  original  print,  7f  by  10j  inches. 


or- 

' 


LINDSAY  ROW,   CHELSEA 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8f  by  11  inches. 

This  etching  shows  the  house  in  which  Whistler  painted  the  portrait  of  his  mother. 
From  the  etchings  by  Joseph  Pennell. 


g-s 

H  .g 

oo 

^i    t*i 

o 

>H     r-l 

<U  .'c 


ffi 
U 

tf 


0       « 


P-i 


g-g 

*r-s 


II 

«  d,. 


..    o 

*&    <o 

o  -5 

Q  Z- 

s| 

o 

— 
C/2 


0 


/ 


JOSEPH  PENNELL  227 

God  gives  a  man  a  good   wife,   that  man  will 

thereafter  have  little  need  to  pray  to  his  Creator 

for  other  blessings."     We  all  know  of  the  beauti- 

ful   union    between    Robert    Browning    and    his 

wife  Elizabeth;  but  this  historic  intellectual  part-        j  •/ 

nership  was  not  more  complete  than  that  between  \  **  '  *** 

Joseph  and  Elizabeth  Robins  Pennell.  * 

The  parallel  is  not  without  divergences.  As 
poets  the  Brownings  were  (in  a  noble  way)  "two 
of  a  trade,"  while  Mrs.  Pennell  never  makes  a 
picture  —  although  she  understands  pictures  so 
well;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Pennell  some- 
times writes  a  book  or  a  detached  article,  and  this 
is  the  particular  province  of  his  wife.  Another 
divergence  from  the  parallel  is  that,  while  Mrs. 
Browning  was  strong  in  her  intellect,  her  physical 
health  was  wretchedly  feeble,  whereas  I  verily 
believe  that  Mrs.  Pennell  hardly  knows  what  it 
is  to  be  tired  either  in  mind  or  body,  or,  if  she 
does,  she  never  shows  it. 

The  many  Americans  who  have  experienced 
her  charming  and  simple  hospitality  in  London 
would,  I  am  sure,  like  to  have  me  go  on  and  on 
with  this  part  of  my  subject,  and  it  is  with  ,  an 
effort  that  I  "keep  my  mouth  as  with  a  bit  and 
bridle,"  and  shorten  all  that  I  would  like  to  say 
in  my  enthusiasm  for  Mrs.  Pennell.  We  all 
know  her  books  and  magazine  articles,  but  it 
is  not  so  generally  known  that  she  is  the  writer 
of  the  widely  read  London  letters  of  art  criti- 
cisms, signed  "N.  N.,"  which  for  years  have 
regularly  appeared  in  the  New  York  "Evening 


228   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Post"  and  in  the  "Nation."  To  me  these  articles 
are  the  best  of  their  kind;  at  least,  I  have  learned 
more  from  them  than  from  the  writings  of  any 
other  of  the  excellent  writers  of  contemporary 
art  criticism,  for  not  only  is  their  author  endowed 
with  "the  pen  of  the  ready  writer,"  and  thoroughly 
equipped  with  knowledge  and  understanding  of 
her  subject,  but  she  also  takes  the  pains  to  gather 
and  then  distribute  definite,  timely,  and  accurate 
information  concerning  art  and  artists.  One  of 
her  books  is  the  biography  of  her  own  uncle, 
Charles  Godfrey  Leland,  whose  Hans  Breit- 
mann  Ballads  made  him  famous  a  generation 
ago,  and  whose  books  on  the  Gypsies  are  so  well 
known.  A  much  thinner  disguise  than  Mrs. 
Pennell's  "N.  N." —  which  is  simply  two  letters 
taken  from  the  middle  of  her  surname  —  is  in 

the  case  of  the  ubiquitous  "  J ,"  a  gentleman 

who  figures  so  interestingly  in  her  books  of  travel; 
but  intelligent  readers  will  have  small  difficulty  in 

guessing  the  identity  of  this  mysterious  "J "! 

Her  magnum  opus  is  unquestionably  the  Life 
of  Whistler,  a  monumental  work  in  the  writing 
of  which  her  husband  collaborated. 

Thus  it  was  that  this  bright  and  enthusiastic 
young  couple  left  Philadelphia  and  settled  in 
London;  and  thus  began  their  notable  artistic 
and  literary  work  of  the  last  twenty-five  years. 
To  illustrate  their  position,  let  us  consider  the 
familiar  case  of  new  and  intelligent  tenants  tak- 
ing possession  of  an  old  house.  The  former 
tenants  may  have  been  intelligent  also,  but  they 


ROSSETTI'S  HOUSE,   CHELSEA 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8|  by  10J  inches. 


THE  HOUSE  WHERE  WHISTLER  DIED 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8|  by  1 1  inches. 

Whistler's  house  —  No.  7-t  Cheyne  Walk,  Chelsea  —  is  the  one  to  the  immediate 
left  of  the  tree  which  stands  to  the  right  in  the  etching. 
From  the  etchings  by  Joseph  Pennell. 


THE  THAMES.   FROM   RICHMOND  HILL 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8|  by  11  inches. 


LINCOLN'S  INN  FIELDS    v 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8f  by  1 1  g  inches. 
From  the  etchings  by  Joseph  Pennell. 


JOSEPH  PENNELL  229 

had  grown  so  used  to  their  surroundings  that 
they  never  once  thought  of  the  many  improve- 
ments which  were  obvious  enough  to  the  new- 
comers. It  was  with  the  spirit  of  these  new 
tenants,  then,  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pennell  came 
to  "discover"  Europe  in  the  year  1884.  Things 
and  scenes  which  were  ordinary  matters  of  course 
to  the  native  Londoners,  or  the  natives  of  other 
parts  of  Europe,  were  to  the  young  American 
couple  intensely  interesting  novelties;  and  it  was 
thus  that  they  saw  and  felt  them,  and  thus  that 
they  described  them  in  picture  and  book.  Some 
of  the  earlier  books  or  single  articles  which  Mr. 
Pennell  illustrated  in  Europe  were  written  by 
his  wife.  The  first  of  these  books  was  Our 
Canterbury  Pilgrimage,  published  in  1885.  Then 
followed  Two  Pilgrims'  Progress  (1886),  and 
Our  Sentimental  Journey  (1887).  Later  came 
Mrs.  Pennell's  charming  book  In  Gypsy-land, 
which  leads  the  reader  through  untrodden  ways 
in  southeastern  Europe.  In  1889  appeared  Our 
Journey  to  the  Hebrides,  and  in  1890  The 
Stream  of  Pleasure,  which  was  jointly  written 
by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Pennell,  as  was  also  that  impor- 
tant book,  Lithography  and  Lithographers  (1898). 

Of  books  written  entirely  by  Joseph  Pennell 
we  have  Pen  Drawing  and  Pen  Draughtsmen 
(to  which  I  shall  devote  a  separate  paragraph 
later  on);  Modern  Illustration  (1895);  The 
Illustration  of  Books  (1896),  being  the  course 
of  lectures  delivered  by  him  at  the  Slade  Art 
School;  and  The  Work  of  Charles  Keene  (1897). 


230        THE   GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

He  has  also  edited  Pablo  de  Segovie  —  the 
edition  containing  the  beautiful  illustrations  by 
Daniel  Vierge  —  and  Some  Poems  by  Tennyson, 
which  was  done  for  the  sake  of  the  Pre- 
Raphaelite  illustrations  which  appeared  in  Mox- 
on's  edition  about  fifty  years  ago. 

Next  comes  the  list  of  Mr.  Pennell's  illustra- 
tions to  the  writings  of  various  other  eminent 
authors.  In  1884  was  published  Tuscan  Cities, 
by  W.  D.  Ho  wells;  the  notable  series  of  illustra- 
tions to  the  English  Cathedrals  of  Mrs.  Schuyler 
van  Rensselaer  appeared  from  1887  to  1890; 
The  Saone,  by  P.  G.  Hamerton  (1888);  the 
reprint  of  Washington  Irving's  Alhambra,  with 
an  introduction  by  Mrs.  Pennell  (1897) ;  A  Little 
Tour  in  France,  by  Henry  James  (1899);  Ital- 
ian Journeys,  by  W.  D.  Howells  (1901);  East 
London,  by  Sir  Walter  Besant  (1901);  Cas- 
tilian  Days  (1903),  by  John  Hay;  Andrew  Lang's 
Edinburgh;  S.  R.  Crockett's  book  on  his  own 
Scottish  country;  several  books  of  the  Highways 
and  Byways  series;  Maurice  Hewlett's  Road 
in  Tuscany  (1904);  and  English  Hours,  by 
Henry  James  (1905).  Mr.  Pennell  also  directed 
the  illustrating  of  John  Morley's  Life  of  Crom- 
well besides  contributing  to  it  many  illustrations 
of  his  own. 

Truly  this  is  an  honorable  record.  But  in 
addition  to  Mr.  Pennell's  illustrations  for  books 
by  these  distinguished  authors  he  has  found 
time  to  write  at  least  one  book  of  prime  impor- 
tance— seeing  that  it  was  the  first  book  on  a 


THE  TOWER   BRIDGE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8|  by  11  inches. 


THE   DOCK  HEAD 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8^  by  11  inches. 
From  the  etchings  by  Joseph  Pennell. 


HEMPSTEAD  PONDS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  6|  by  11  inches. 


SAINT  BARTHOLOMEW'S.     THE  FOUNDER'S  TOMB. 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8  by  10|  inches. 
From  the  etchings  by  Joseph  Pennell. 


JOSEPH  PENNELL  231 

new  and  significant  subject,  Pen  Drawings  and 
Pen  Draughtsmen  (1889),  a  large  and  costly 
work  which  has  already  gone  through  three  edi- 
tions. Thirty  years  ago  there  would  have  been 
no  need  for  such  a  book,  for  before  that  period 
the  illustrator  drew  his  design  upon  a  piece  of 
boxwood  and  handed  it  over  to  the  tender  mer- 
cies of  the  wood-engraver;  often  the  engraver 
spoiled  the  beauty  of  the  artist's  design,  but 
whether  he  spoiled  it  or  not  he  always,  in  en- 
graving it,  had  to  annihilate  the  actual  picture 
which  the  artist  had  drawn.  But  with  the  in- 
vention of  what  is  vaguely  called  "process" 
reproduction  of  a  drawing  all  this  is  changed, 
and  to-day  the  first-class  illustrator  is  in  a  posi- 
tion to  belie  the  old  adage  that  "you  can't  eat 
your  cake  and  have  it  too";  these  artists  can  eat 
their  cake  but  still  have  it.  What  they  do  is  to 
sell  to  the  publisher,  not  their  drawing,  but  only 
the  right  to  reproduce  it.  When  this  is  done,  by 
means  of  photography  and  "process"  work,  the 
original  drawing  is  'handed  back,  intact,  to  the 
artist,  and  he  has  then  the  right  to  dispose  of  it 
as  he  pleases. 

This  revolution  in  reproductive  methods  for  the 
illustrating  of  books  and  periodicals  had  caused 
(as  all  revolutions  are  sure  to  cause)  wide-spread 
suffering  to  innocent  persons.  The  wood-engraver 
for  about  four  centuries  had  been  indispensable, 
because  his  was  the  only  kind  of  picture  which 
could  be  rapidly  printed  on  a  machine  press  along 
with  the  type  which  printed  the  pages  of  the 


232   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

book;  and  it  may  here  be  added  that  the  Amer- 
ican school  of  engravers  on  wood  had  become 
the  most  artistic  and  expert  in  the  world.  Then 
it  was  that  the  new  "process"  method  was  per- 
fected, and  thereafter  wood-engraving  was  killed. 
The  new  method  was  found  to  yield  an  unerring 
reproduction  of  the  artist's  picture  just  as  he  had 
drawn  it,  and  so  it  came  to  pass  that  engraving 
on  wood  got  its  death-blow,  and  the  world  got 
one  more  demonstration  of  "the  survival  of  the 
fittest." 

Besides  his  writings  on  art  subjects,  there  are 
others  which  record  the  prowess  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Pennell  as  bicyclists  throughout  the  Continent 
of  Europe  and  even  over  the  Alps.  Mrs.  Pennell's 
book,  Bicycling,  appeared  in  1885,  and  recently 
Mr.  Pennell  revisited  the  Alps  on  a  motor  cycle 
and  made  the  record  of  being  the  first  man  thus 
to  traverse  eleven  of  the  difficult  passes  in  a  single 
week.  Still  another  of  his  activities  is  represented 
by  the  public  lectures  which  he  has  delivered 
before  certain  art  societies  in  England. 

Let  us  now  consider  Mr.  Pennell  as  an  orig- 
inal painter-etcher;  for  it  is  etching  that  he 
is  perhaps  at  his  best.  A  French  writer  has 
wisely  said  that  while  artists  work  daily  at  paint- 
ing, it  is  only  on  their  good  days  that  they  etch. 
Another  French  authority  tells  us  that  no  one 
can  do  a  thing  thoroughly  well  unless  he  can  do 
it  with  ease.  Both  of  these  conditions  apply  to 
Mr.  Pennell  as  an  etcher.  The  quality  and  vol- 
ume of  his  work  as  an  illustrator  we  know;  but 


d 

pr]  '£ 

H       13 


2 

H 

Cfi 


PL, 
H 


w 


JOSEPH  PENNELL  233 

yet,  throughout  these  busy  twenty-five  years 
and  more,  it  is  evident  that  when  an  extra  "good" 
day  came  to  him  he  was  pretty  sure  to  make  an 
etching,  and  that  etching  was  pretty  sure  to  be 
full  of  the  painter-etcher's  prime  quality,  namely, 
spontaneity  and  freshness.  Speaking  on  this  sub- 
ject, the  great  landscape  etcher,  Sir  Seymour 
Haden,  has  said  to  me:  "An  etching  which  occu- 
pies the  artist  for,  say,  three  days,  is  in  fact  the 
work  of  three  different  men;  the  artist's  mood  is 
one  thing  on  Monday,  another  on  Tuesday,  and 
still  another  on  Wednesday;  but  the  freshness 
and  unity  of  an  etching  cannot  be  maintained 
unless  the  artist  knows  exactly  what  he  intends 
to  do  and  then  does  it  at  once."  And  in  Sir 
Seymour's  pamphlet,  About  Etching,  he  writes: 
"The  painter,  by  overlaying  his  work,  may  mod- 
ify and  correct  it  as  he  goes  on.  Not  so  the  etcher. 
Every  stroke  he  makes  must  tell  strongly  against 
him  if  it  be  bad,  or  prove  him  a  master  if  it  be 
good.  In  no  branch  of  art  does  a  touch  go  for 
so  much.  The  necessity  for  a  rigid  selection  is 
therefore  constantly  present  in  his  mind.  If  one 
stroke  in  the  right  place  tells  more  for  him  than 
one  in  the  wrong,  it  would  seem  to  follow  that 
that  single  stroke  is  a  more  learned  stroke  than 
the  ten  by  which  he  would  have  arrived  at  his 
end."  "The  faculty  of  doing  such  work  supposes 
a  concentration  and  a  reticence  requisite  in  no 
other  art." 

Whistler  was  of  the  same  opinion,  and  although 
it  was  not  his  habit  to  praise  the  work  of  his 


234   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

brother  artists,  yet  in  London,  when  Mr.  Pennell 
made  an  exhibition  of  his  own  lithographs, 
Whistler  contributed  to  the  catalogue  the  fol- 
lowing characteristic  little  note  of  introduction: 
"There  is  a  crispness  in  their  execution,  and  a 
lightness  and  gaiety  in  their  arrangement  as 
pictures,  that  belong  to  the  artist  alone."  I 
may  add  that  Mr.  Pennell's  work  in  lithography 
well  deserves  to  be  treated  in  a  separate  article. 

This  impromptu  spontaneity  of  his  method 
involves  one  little  drawback  —  if  it  be  a  draw- 
back at  all:  it  is  that  in  his  architectural  drawing 
what  the  French  call  the  orientation  is  reversed; 
west  takes  the  place  of  east,  and  south  of  north. 
But  in  this  he  follows  the  precedent  of  Rembrandt, 
Whistler,  and  Seymour  Haden.  The  sole  pre- 
occupation of  these  masters  was  to  make  an 
artistic  picture,  and  they  cared  nothing  at  all  for 
observing  the  points  of  the  compass.  The  printing 
of  course  reverses  the  design  as  seen  on  the  etched 
copper  plate. 

To  have  seen  Mr.  Pennell  at  work  etching  a 
plate  is  a  thing  to  remember.  He  loves  to  depict 
the  towering  buildings  of  crowded  city  streets. 
Most  etchers  of  such  subjects  would  make  a 
preliminary  sketch  on  the  spot  and  afterwards 
toil  laboriously  over  the  copper  plate  in  the  retire- 
ment of  their  studios;  but  Mr.  Pennell  takes  a 
far  more  direct  course,  and  one  which  would 
disconcert  almost  any  other  artist.  He  chooses 
his  place  in  the  crowded  street,  and  stands  there 
quite  undisturbed  by  the  rush  of  passers-by,  or 


. 

O    H« 

Q  <» 


H    S 

' 


i 


II 


—        C$ 

w  "^ 

si 

W  -a 
h-)  ^ 

*o 

8 

cc 


K 


_ 

Q. 


.-£ 

3 


.§ 

cc 


-a 


£ 


a 

I 


o     to 


*tt 

O  "3  >> 

S  2^ 
^  $s 
o  J-g 

W     6C'C 

gC  ~~ 
*£H  rs 
~  ~ 


O 


.  — i 
oo 

«'§ 


K 

ffi    ^    4> 


\ 


JOSEPH  PENNELL  235 

by  the  idlers  who  stand  and  stare  at  him  or  at 
his  work.  Taking  rapid  glances  at  the  scene  he 
is  depicting,  he  rapidly  draws  his  lines  with  the 
etching-needle  upon  the  copper  plate  which  he 
holds  in  his  other  hand,  and,  what  to  me  seems 
an  astonishing  tour  de  force,  he  never  hesitates 
one  instant  in  selecting  the  exact  spot  on  his  plate 
where  he  is  about  to  draw  some  vital  line  of  the 
picture,  each  line  of  it  being  a  "learned  stroke" 
such  as  Seymour  Haden  insists  upon. 

Of  late  he  has  become  the  printer  of  his  own 
plates.  The  fastidious  Whistler  was  forced  to 
do  the  same.  It  is  a  troublesome  operation,  but 
when  an  etcher  prints  his  own  proofs  (provided 
that  he  knows  how  to  do  it)  we  have  the  satis- 
faction of  knowing  that  each  proof  is  exactly 
what  the  artist  intended  it  to  be.  With  regard 
to  Mr.  Pennell's  etched  copper  plates,  it  is  not 
generally  known  that  he  has  already  destroyed 
most  of  them,  including  all  the  earlier  ones. 
This  is  a  wise  thing  for  an  etcher  to  do  just  as 
soon  as  his  plate  shows  the  first  signs  of  deterio- 
ration from  the  wear  and  tear  of  the  printing- 
press. 

As  a  controversialist  in  matters  concerning 
art  and  artists  Mr.  Pennell's  earlier  years  in 
London  were  stormy  ones,  and  he  certainly  suc- 
ceeded in  making  several  more  or  less  sleepy 
critical  dignitaires  "sit  up"  in  amazement  and 
indignation  at  his  audacity.  One  of  them,  a 
really  eminent  critic,  said  to  me  on  this  subject: 
"How  dare  this  rash  young  American  upset 


236   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

our  accepted  theories,  and  attack  men  of  estab- 
lished reputation!"  But,  little  by  little,  a  change 
came  about,  and  these  solemn  conservative  folk 
awoke  to  the  discovery  that  when  Joseph  Pennell 
published  some  revolutionary  opinion,  he  was 
very  apt  to  be  in  the  right!  The  truth  is  that 
to  his  stern  Quaker  conscience  there  is  only 
one  law  —  Right  is  right,  and  must  be  upheld; 
wrong  is  wrong,  and  must  be  denounced,  no 
matter  who  may  be  hurt  or  who  may  be  offended. 
Moreover,  his  criticisms  can  be  constructive  as 
well  as  destructive.  It  was  he  who  discovered 
and  first  proclaimed  the  extraordinary  talent  of 
Aubrey  Beardsley,  and  it  was  he  who  recalled 
Ifrom  partial  neglect  the  merit  of  the  illustrations 
of  such  great  artists  as  Charles  Keene  and  Daniel 


Mr.  Pennell's  attitude  in  his  controversies 
gave  him  a  great  advantage  as  compared  with 
the  attitude  of  his  own  divinity  and  intimate 
friend,  the  great  Whistler.  In  Whistler's  con- 
troversies the  unpardonable  sin  of  his  opponent 
was  always  committed  against  the  personality 
of  the  great  man  himself,  whereas  Mr.  Pennell, 
though  hating  the  sin,  continued  to  love  the 
sinner.  I  remember  a  quaint  demonstration  of 
this,  at  the  time  when  controversies  were  being 
waged  rather  furiously.  Being  at  his  house,  I 
quoted  to  him  the  remark  of  Lady  Teazle  to 
her  husband,  Sir  Peter,  in  Sheridan's  School 
for  Scandal,  "I  vow  I  bear  no  malice  against 
the  people  I  abuse!"  "No  more  do  I,"  was  Mr. 


- 


cs  c 

&H  '*" 

02  j^* 

Q  .1 


— 
" 


2  S  2 


.a 

r      t-»o 

r-T     O 


^    d 

Si 


S2 

g* 


I 


/ 


JOSEPH  PENNELL  237 

Pennell's   rejoinder;    "personally   they   are   very 
decent  fellows." 

Apart  from  the  steady  improvement  in  the 
quality  of  his  pictures  (and  that  he  is  thirty 
years  older  than  when  I  knew  him  first),  I  can 
perceive  no  change  in  Joseph  Pennell.  A  posi- 
tive personality,  he  was  himself  from  the  begin- 
ning, and  he  will  remain  so  to  the  end.  His 
long  intercourse  with  many  distinguished  people 
in  London  has  not  imparted  to  his  speech  even 
a  trace  of  the  London  accent,  nor  have  the  more 
ornate  and  ceremonious  manners  of  his  British 
and  Continental  friends  changed  him  in  the  least 
from  the  simple  and  kindly  young  Philadelphian 
whom  I  first  knew.  As  I  write  I  can  almost  see 
him  in  his  London  home,  taking  his  ease  in  his 
library  and  comfortably  "dumped"  down  in  his 
low-seated  wicker  armchair.  It  was  in  this  uncere- 
monious, but  characteristic  pose,  that  Whistler 
made  his  portrait  —  knees  and  elbows  being  well 
in  evidence.  An  outsider  seeing  him  thus  would 
think  (begging  his  pardon)  that  he  was  a  very 
lazy  man.  Joseph  Pennell  a  lazy  man!  Any  one 
who  thinks  so  still  has  evidently  not  read  the 
preceding  pages. 

MR.    PENNELL  AS  A   PRINTER 

New  York  has  had  several  exhibitions  of  Mr. 
Pennell's  works  —  because  we  "believe  in"  them, 
and  because  we  are  sure  that  etchings  of  such 
fine  quality  should  be  recommended  as  being, 


238   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

perhaps,  the  very  best  works  of  the  kind  which 
/are  available  to  art-lovers  at  a  price  which  has 
I  not  yet.become  excessive. 

This  article  specially  considers  Mr.  Pennell 
as  the  printer  as  well  as  the  etcher  of  his  own 
plates.  No  printer  can  print  a  good  proof  from 
a  bad  plate,  but,  per  contra,  a  maladroit  printer 
would  surely  spoil  the  effect  of  the  finest  etched 
plate  in  the  world.  Admitting  this,  it  is  certain 
that  no  man  can  know  so  well  what  the  printed 
proof  should  be  as  does  the  artist  himself.  Every 
line  of  his  picture  was  drawn  with  an  artistic  pur- 
pose —  a  purpose  of  which  only  he  himself  has 
the  secret;  so  that  when  we  see  a  proof  which  has 
been  printed  by  the  hands  of  the  original  crea- 
tive artist,  whether  we  personally  like  it  or  not, 
we  at  least  know  that  it  is  exactly  what  its  maker 
had  intended  it  to  be. 

Nine-tenths  of  all  the  famous  engravings  and 
etchings  in  existence  have  not  been  printed  by 
the  artist  who  made  the  plate,  but  by  some  pro- 
fessional printer.  Such  an  intermediary  must 
have  great  skill,  but  no  matter  how  skilful  he 
may  be  he  can  never  enter  into  the  exact  pur- 
pose and  intent  of  the  artist  who  conceived  and 
I  etched  the  original  plate.  The  skilled  mechanic 
can  print  ten  or  twenty  proofs  exactly  alike  in 
quality,  a  thing  which  the  original  artist  can- 
not do.  Every  proof  which  the  artist  prints  is, 
in  a  way,  a  new  problem  to  him,  and  hence  it 
is  that  such  wide  differences  of  effect  and  of  qual- 
ity are  found  in  different  proofs  of  the  same  plate 


CO 

w 
< 


a, 
1 


'g 


S  - 

H  ^ 

«2  „ 

H  -S 


H 


O  [§ 


Ji 

a 


— ^ 


W  ^ 
CQ  ~ 


O  "a 


JOSEPH  PENNELL  239 

when  they  are  printed  by  the  artist  himself. 
For  this  reason  we  see  the  importance  to  the 
intelligent  collector  of  selecting  just  the  proof 
which  entirely  satisfies  him. 

Three  centuries  ago  Rembrandt  was  forced  to 
become  his  own  printer  (and  he  never  could 
suffer  any  one  to  witness  the  printing) .  Whistler, 
also,  through  his  extreme  fastidiousness,  became 
his  own  printer;  and  the  great  tradition  is  car- 
ried on  by  Mr.  Pennell.  Some  etchers  —  and 
good  ones  —  must  remain  at  the  mercy  of  the 
professional  printer,  because  they  themselves  can 
never  acquire  the  handicraft  skill  to  print  their 
own  plates.  The  printer's  proofs  may  be  excel- 
lent, but  they  can  never  equal  in  originality  the 
proofs  printed  by  the  original  artist,  provided 
that  he  knows  how  to  print. 

No  modern  paper  yields  so  good  a  proof  as 
does  fine  hand-made  paper,  which  has  been 
mellowed  in  tone  and  texture  by  one  or  two 
centuries  of  age,  and  Mr.  Pennell  (who  is  a 
great  traveler  throughout  Europe)  has  been  most 
fortunate  in  accumulating  a  supply  of  the  finest 
old  paper. 

To  pass  from  the  printing  to  the  more  impor- 
tant subject  of  the  result  of  the  printing,  namely, 
the  pictures  themselves,  it  will  be  seen  that  inex- 
haustible London  furnishes  the  subjects  of  most 
of  the  etchings.  No  sensitive  person  can  live  in 
London  for  long  years  without  acquiring  a  real 
love  for  the  greatest  of  all  cities.  Even  its  very 
uglinesses  have  their  charm! 


240        THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

MR.  PENNELL'S  ETCHINGS  OF  NEW  YORK 
"  SKY-SCRAPERS  " 

Perhaps  no  artist  now  living  and  working  has 
less  need  of  an  introduction  to  the  American  pub- 
lic than  Mr.  Joseph  Pennell.  His  age  is  now  only 
fifty,  and  yet  it  would  be  difficult  to  name  any 
other  man  who  has  given  us  so  many  enjoyable 
pictures  of  such  fine  artistic  quality. 

At  the  invitation  of  the  authorities  at  the  St. 
Louis  Exposition,  Mr.  Pennell  went  from  Lon- 
don to  St.  Louis,  where  he  served  as  Chairman 
of  the  Jury  on  Illustration  and  Engraving,  and 
returning  eastward  by  way  of  Philadelphia  —  his 
native  city  —  he  came  on  to  us  here  in  New  York. 
His  stay  with  us  was  brief,  because,  as  usual, 
he  was  wanted  in  Europe,  where  important 
commissions  awaited  him. 

Arrived  in  New  York,  Mr.  PennelPs  experi- 
ence has  been  similar  to  what  it  was  in  the  many 
European  countries  whose  scenes  he  has  depicted. 
He  cares  as  little  as  ever  for  the  recognized 
"show-pieces," — just  as  little  as  Whistler  him- 
self cared,  —  and  says  of  our  Old  City  Hall,  and 
Grace  Church,  and  the  Central  Park  that  they 
are  all  very  well  in  their  way,  but  that  the  same 
things,  or  things  very  similar,  may  be  seen  in 
almost  any  other  civilized  capital;  but  the  tower- 
ing piles  of  the  New  York  "sky-scrapers"  — 
each  one  of  them  like  a  whole  street  set  on  end 
—  have  impressed  Mr.  Pennell  very  strongly, 
and  these  absolute  novelties  in  etched  pictures- 


i 


1  ?- *  •     *     j  *      '.j< 

- 


NEW  YORK:  THE   UNBELIEVABLE   CITY 

Size  of  the  original  print,  85  by  11  inches. 


PITTSBURGH,   NUMBER  TWO 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8£  by  12  inches. 
From  the  etchings  by  Joseph  Pennell. 


IN  THE  WORKS,   HOMESTEAD,   PENNSYLVANIA 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8  by  10  inches. 


THE   CURVING   BRIDGE,   PITTSBURGH 

Size  of  the  original  print,  8  by  11  inches. 
From  the  etchings  by  Joseph  Pennell. 


JOSEPH  PENNELL  241 

made  a  great  impression.  Their  collective  title 
may  seem  to  lack  the  dignity  of  prim  formality, 
but  yet  a  recent  writer  in  Paris  has  issued  a 
treatise  which  it  pleases  him  to  entitle  Les 
£fo/-scratchers  de  New  York. 

This  impromptu  spontaneity  of  Mr.  Pennell's 
method  carries  with  it  one  little  drawback  —  if  it 
be  a  drawback  at  all.  It  is,  that  in  his  archi- 
tectural scenes  what  the  French  call  the  orienta- 
tion is  reversed:  west  is  east  and  east  is  west. 
In  this  he  follows  the  precedent  of  both  Rem- 
brandt and  Whistler.  The  sole  preoccupation 
of  these  masters  was  to  produce  a  picture,  and 
they  cared  not  at  all  to  provide  a  topographical 
plan  of  some  stated  locality.  The  artist  etches 
his  subject  on  the  copper-plate  just  as  he  sees  it, 
and  in  the  printing  of  the  proofs  the  orientation 
is,  of  course,  reversed.  But  if  any  over-scrupu- 
lous person  wishes  to  see  one  of  Whistler's  Ven- 
ice etchings,  or  one  of  Pennell's  New  York  plates, 
I  exactly  as  the  original  buildings  represented  stand, 
I  he  has  only  to  hold  the  etching  before  a  mirror 
/and  look  at  the  reflection. 

John  Ruskin,  when  once  invited  to  visit  the 
United  States,  declared  that  he  could  not  exist 
in  a  country  which  contained  no  ancient  castles; 
but  with  us  in  America,  where  "the  greatest 
good  to  the  greatest  number"  is  the  wholesome 
rule,  such  sentimentality  is  generally  swept  aside: 
down  comes  the  inconvenient  old  building  and 
up  goes  a  much  better  one  in  its  place.  But  it 
must  not  be  supposed  for  these  reasons  that  our 


242       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

contemporary  architects  are  not  genuine  artists 
also.  Mr.  Pennell  certainly  has  discerned  art 
in  their  "sky-scrapers,"  and  so  competent  a 
judge  as  the  late  F.  Marion  Crawford,  on  seeing 
these  etchings,  made  the  pithy  remark,  "I  see 
that  you  have  made  Architecture  of  the  New 
York  buildings."  He  has,  and  yet  he  has  depicted 
them  truly. 

Still  another  authority  of  high  repute  has  given 
his  opinion  thus:  "In  whatever  he  does  he  is 
always  the  artist;  and  now  that  Whistler  is  dead 
and  Seymour  Haden  no  longer  etching,  I  consider 
that  the  ablest  painter-etcher  now  living  and 
working  is  unquestionably  Joseph  Pennell." 


D.  Y.  CAMERON 

PAINTER-ETCHER 

BESIDES  the  few  recognized  modern  masters 
of  the  art,  whose  work  is  of  permanent  value, 
it  is  certain  that  by  far  too  many  men  of  respect- 
able but  not  remarkable  talent  have  been  produ- 
cing etchings  within  the  last  thirty  years.  Such 
etchings,  while  they  cannot  really  be  called  bad, 
yet  contain  nothing  new  that  is  good;  nothing 
that  had  not  already  been  quite  as  well  done  by 
others. 

Twenty  years  ago  such  mediocre  works  were 
accepted  without  question.  An  "etching"  (re- 
gardless of  its  quality)  was  a  choice  possession 
and  an  indication  of  refined  taste  on  the  part  of 
its  possessor.  But  times  have  changed.  The 
taste,  knowledge,  and  discrimination  of  the  pub- 
lic have  greatly  advanced,  and  what  passed  as 
being  remarkably  good  then  will  not  be  accepted 
now. 

These  things  being  so,  our  only  warrant  in 
writing  of  the  works  of  this  younger  painter- 
etcher  is  the  conviction  that  we  have  in  Mr. 
D.  Y.  Cameron  an  artist  of  genuine  originality 
and  power;  a  man  who  is  in  no  sense  an  echo  of 
somebody  else,  but  one  who  sees  nature  in  a  way 
of  his  own  and  who  has  abundant  technical  skill 
to  express  what  he  sees  and  feels. 

243 


244   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Mr.  Cameron  is  the  son  of  a  Scottish  clergy- 
man. He  is  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Painter-Etchers,  and  probably  the  youngest 
member  of  that  distinguished  body.  Sir  Francis 
Seymour  Haden,  its  president,  writes  of  Mr.  Cam- 
eron with  an  enthusiasm  which  is  unusual  with 
him  —  hailing  him  as  a  hopeful  successor  to  the 
masters  of  the  previous  generation,  and  cordially 
recognizing  in  his  work  that  precious  gift  of  per- 
sonality without  which  all  mere  technical  skill  is 
in  vain. 

Of  his  etchings  some  wise  connoisseurs  declare 
that  they  have  never  seen  and  never  had  enough. 
There  is  a  good  reason  for  this.  It  is  that  Mr. 
Cameron  is,  before  all,  a  painter,  and  that  his 
paintings  are  highly  esteemed;  and  whenever  such 
a  painter  spends  his  time  in  etching  a  plate  he 
always  makes  a  pecuniary  sacrifice  in  doing  so. 

In  examining  these  etchings  of  his  it  is  not 
easy  to  designate  his  forte.  Meryon  etched  pic- 
turesque buildings  magnificently,  but  his  portraits 
are  simply  bad.  Whistler  has  triumphed  in  a 
wider  field,  but  he  seems  to  care  nothing  for  the 
restful  charms  of  rural  landscape  —  where  Sey- 
mour Haden  is  supreme.  Mr.  Cameron  (though 
we  hope  his  best  work  is  still  to  be  done)  already 
shows  himself  equally  at  home  when  delineating 
pure  landscape,  views  of  buildings  and  shipping, 
interiors  or  portraits.  Believing,  with  Whistler, 
that  "the  huge  plate  is  an  offense,"  he  confines 
his  work  within  the  modest  dimensions  so  dear 
to  the  heart  of  the  collector,  and,  like  Whistler 


SAINT  MARK'S,  VENICE,  NUMBER  TWO 

Size  of  the  original  print,  llf  by  7f  inches. 
From  the  etching  by  D.  Y.  Cameron. 


THE   GATEWAY,   BRUGES 

Size  of  the  original  print,  13  by  7f  inches. 
From  the  etching  by  D.  Y.  Cameron. 


D.  Y.  CAMERON  245 

again,  he  is,  of  late,  his  own  printer.  The  great 
majority  of  good  etchers  do  well  to  have  their 
proofs  taken  by  some  good  professional  printer, 
simply  because  such  artists  do  not  possess  and, 
never  could  acquire,  the  handicraft  skill  neces- 
sary to  "pull"  a  good  proof;  but  on  the  other  hand 
no  etcher  who  is  not  able  to  print  his  own  plates 
can  have  his  proofs  exactly  as  he  wants  them  and, 
in  consequence,  exactly  as  they  should  be.  Hap- 
pily for  Mr.  Cameron,  he  is  endowed  with  wonder- 
ful skill  in  printing  his  own  works.  In  the  case 
of  a  few  of  them  a  professional  printer  would 
probably  say  that  the  shadows  are  a  little  too 
black;  but  even  in  such  cases  we  have  the  satis- 
faction of  knowing  that  they  are  exactly  as  the 
artist  meant  them  to  be.  He  is  fortunate  again 
in  having  found  (we  wonder  where)  a  stock  of 
very  fine  and  rare  old  Dutch  paper.  Such  paper 
not  only  takes  a  finer  impression  than  any  other, 
but  it  imparts  to  the  proof  a  tender  mellowness 
of  tone  that  none  of  modern  manufacture  can 
imitate. 

It  may  be  that  Mr.  Cameron  may  never  become 
a  "popular"  etcher,  and  we  greatly  doubt  that 
his  desires  run  in  that  direction  —  although  he 
has  the  example  before  him  of  popular  etchers 
who  do  not  scruple  to  print  as  many  as  five 
hundred  "proofs"  from  a  plate.  To  print  such 
an  enormous  edition  the  copper-plate  must  of 
course  be  steel-faced,  and  Mr.  Cameron's  artistic 
conscience  disapproves  of  this  steel-facing.  He 
believes  that  from  the  bare  and  perishable  copper- 


246       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

plate  alone  can  a  veritable  "artist's  proof"  be 
printed.  For  this  reason  he  never  prints  more 
I  than  thirty-five  impressions  of  any  plate  —  and 
|  seldom  so  many.  Then  he  destroys  the  copper, 
'  so  that  we  may  consider  any  proof  of  his  to  be  a 
choice  rarity  from  the  very  day  of  its  birth.  For 
this  reason  his  work  appeals  to  the  true  connois- 
seurs —  a  very  restricted  class. 


HENRI  FANTIN-LATOUR 

Reprinted,  by  permission,  from  "  The  Century 
Magazine" 

DURING  his  yearly  visits  to  Paris,  it  was 
the  good  fortune  of  the  writer  to  be  party 
to  a  peculiar  bargain  or  stipulation  made  between 
himself  and  the  eminent  Dutch  painter  and  etcher, 
the  Jonkheer  Charles  Storm  van's  Gravesande. 
This  agreement  was,  that  neither  of  the  two  should 
make  his  first  visit  to  the  yearly  Salon  unless 
accompanied  by  the  other.  To  spend  a  whole 
day  among  the  new  pictures  with  this  Dutch 
nobleman  as  guide  and  mentor  might  almost 
be  called  a  liberal  education.  He  is  endowed 
with  the  faculty  (rare  among  artists)  of  dis- 
cerning what  is  good  in  the  works  of  his  con- 
temporaries, and  he  has  a  catholicity  of  taste 
which  enables  him  to  enjoy  good  pictures  of 
widely  different  kinds.  During  these  visits  he 
was  always  willing  to  be  led  here  or  there,  so  as 
to  give  his  opinion  on  this  or  that  picture;  but 
on  one  point  he  was  immovable.  "First,"  he 
would  say,  "I  must  see  what  Fantin-Latour 
exhibits;  after  that  you  may  take  me  where  you 
please." 

On  the  occasion  of  one  of  these  visits  M.  Fan- 
tin's  contribution  was  his  now  famous  painting 

247 


248   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

entitled  "Around  the  Piano."  Some  five  or  six 
of  the  great  musicians  of  Paris  are  seen  grouped 
about  a  piano.  They  have  not  the  slightest 
air  of  posing  for  their  portraits,  but  are  all  intently 
listening  to  the  music  which  one  of  them  is  play- 
ing. Some  years  ago  the  authorities  of  the  Paris 
Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts  organized  a  memorable 
Retrospective  Exhibition  of  French  Portraits,  and 
there  the  place  of  honor  was  accorded  to  a  large 
picture  by  Fantin-Latour.  It  represents  an  admi- 
rably composed  group  of  eminent  persons,  mostly 
artists.  In  this  painting  the  more  distant  figures 
are  partly  concealed  by  those  in  front  of  them, 
and  in  the  nearest  foreground  is  seen  the  full- 
length  figure  of  Whistler,  which  dominates  the 
whole  picture. 

It  is  strange  that  so  distinguished  a  painter, 
pastelist,  and  designer  of  lithographs  as  Fantin- 
Latour  should  be  still  comparatively  unknown 
in  the  United  States,  for  in  Europe  he  ranks  as  a 
master;  and  it  does  not  often  happen  that  Amer- 
icans are  slow  in  discerning  original  work  of  genuine 
power.  Our  early  recognition  of  such  painters 
as  Millet  and  Corot,  and  such  writers  as  Car- 
lyle  and  Herbert  Spencer,  may  demonstrate  this. 
Yet,  all  the  world  over,  the  great  original  artist 
or  writer  finds  himself  at  a  temporary  disadvan- 
tage as  compared  with  what  may  be  called  the 
first-rate  second-rate  man. 

In  Paris  Fantin-Latour  lived  and  worked 
quietly,  and  for  long  years  in  the  small  Rue  des 
Beaux-Arts,  on  "the  other  side"  of  the  river 


SIEGFRIED  AND  THE   RHINE  MAIDENS 

Size  of  the  original  print,  18|  by  14j  inches. 

From  the  lithograph    by  Henri   Fantin-Latour.     This    beautiful   lithograph  was 
suggested  by  Wagner's  music-drama  of  "The  Nieblung  Ring." 


THE  EVOCATION   OF  KUNDRY 

Size  of  the  original  print,  19  by  13f  inches. 

From  the  lithograph  by  Henri  Fantin-Latour.     The  subject  is  taken  from  Wag- 
ner's "Parsifal." 


HENRI  FANTIN-LATOUR  249 

Seine  —  a  locality  neither  fashionable  nor  well 
known,  notwithstanding  its  high-sounding  name. 
He  always  avoided  taking  part  in  the  intrigues 
of  the  Paris  Salon,  and  even  declined  to  act  as 
one  of  the  jury  for  the  selection  of  the  pictures  to 
be  there  exhibited.  This,  for  a  Paris  artist,  is 
most  unusual.  To  hear  many  of  these  gentlemen 
talk  (and  how  they  can  talk!)  one  would  suppose 
that  a  painter  could  do  nothing  good  until  he 
had  been  medaille  at  the  Salon  —  and  nothing 
bad  ever  after. 

Fantin-Latour  was  one  of  the  most  absorbed 
of  artists  and  one  of  the  most  disinterested  of 
men.  Some  time  ago  an  agent  in  Paris  was 
instructed  to  offer  him  a  commission  of  such  im- 
portance that  it  would  have  been  gladly  accepted 
by  almost  any  artist  living;  but  in  response  M. 
Fantin  quietly  said  that,  while  the  proposed  order 
would  be  both  flattering  and  profitable  to  him, 
yet  he  could  not  accept  it  because  he  was  just 
then  at  work  on  a  picture,  and  that  for  some  time 
to  come  he  could  not  turn  his  mind  to  anything 
else. 

M.  Fantin  never  exhibited  what  is  called  "the 
picture  of  the  year,"  and  it  is  probable  that  he 
never  had  the  least  ambition  to  do  so.  His  work 
is  eminently  reserved  and  sober,  while  the  picture 
of  the  year  must,  in  some  way,  be  of  a  loud  or 
a  sensational  character.  And  yet  this  quiet  man 
and  quiet  artist  always  had  a  following.  If  at 
first  this  following  was  small  in  number,  it  never 
was  small  in  quality;  for  it  was  of  the  kind  which 


250   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Hamlet  had  in  mind  when,  in  admonishing  the 
players,  he  says  of  "the  judicious,"  whose  good 
opinion  is  to  be  coveted,  "The  censure  of  the 
which  one  must,  in  your  allowance,  o'erweigh  a 
whole  theater  of  others." 

Thus  the  first  man  who  ever  spoke  to  me  of 
Fantin-Latour  was  Sir  Seymour  Haden,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Royal  Society  of  Painter-Etchers. 
In  his  earlier  days  Sir  Seymour  resided  for  some 
time  in  France  and  held  the  post  of  prosecteur  at 
the  Military  Hospital  at  Grenoble,  and  at  Gren- 
oble Fantin-Latour  was  born  in  the  year  1836. 
Later  we  find  the  young  French  artist  residing  in 
London,  where  he  was  the  intimate  friend  of  the 
Haden  family.  Lady  Haden  (who  was  a  half-sister 
of  Whistler)  related  that  M.  Fantin  was  one  of  the 
most  interesting  young  men  she  had  ever  known. 
She  remembered  that  in  those  days  he  was  almost 
a  pessimist  in  his  fastidious  rejecting  of  everything 
connected  with  art  which  was  not  to  him  noble, 
satisfying,  and  perfect. 

If  M.  Fantin  never  sought  the  official  recom- 
penses which  are  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  the 
average  French  artist,  these  same  medals  and 
decorations  sought  him.  Besides  many  distinctions 
received  from  other  countries,  the  French  author-  » 
ities  honored  him  signally.  In  1870  he  won  a 
third-class  medal  at  the  Salon,  and  in  1875  one 
of  the  second  class.  In  1879  he  was  made  a 
chevalier  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  and  was  consti- 
tuted hors  concours  at  the  Salon,  and  in  1889  at 
the  Exposition  Universelle.  This  last-named  high 


SARA  LA  BAIGNEUSE 

Size  of  the  original  print,  13f  by  9|  inches. 

From  the  lithograph  by  Henri  Fantin-Latour.     A  very  beautiful  and  character- 
istic example  of  the  artist's  idealistic  treatment  of  the  female  form. 


HENRI  FANTIN-LATOUR  251 

distinction  is  a  most  convenient  one  to  an  artist, 
because  it  entitles  him  thereafter  to  exhibit  what- 
ever he  pleases,  without  having  first  to  submit 
his  work  to  the  scrutiny  of  the  jury  of  admission. 

Unlike  some  masters,  such  as  Turner,  or  Rus- 
kin  in  his  writings,  Fantin-Latour  seems  never 
to  have  gone  through  more  or  less  contradictory 
"periods"  in  the  course  of  his  career,  nor  to  have 
been  impeded  (or  stampeded)  by  any  of  the  ephem- 
eral fads  of  the  day.  Roger  Marx  writes  of  him: 
"He  remains  always  and  inalterably  himself." 
Allowing  for  the  development  which  time  and 
experience  afford  to  any  serious  worker,  what  he 
was  at  first  he  remained  to  the  last  —  an  idealist, 
an  imaginative  dreamer;  in  a  word,  a  poet.  Apart 
from  his  own  art,  his  lifelong  dominating  passion 
was  classical  music;  and  here  a  very  curious 
detail  may  be  mentioned:  it  is  that  Fantin-Latour 
did  not  know  how  to  play  any  instrument.  His 
most  poetical  pictures  were  inspired  by  the  in- 
strumental music  of  such  masters  as  Schumann, 
Berlioz,  Wagner,  and  Brahms,  and  in  these  pic- 
tures he  never  followed  the  stage  directions  of 
any  composer,  but  idealized  the  sound  of  the 
music  itself  into  dreamy,  beautiful,  human  forms. 

While  engaged  in  making  portraits  in  oils  or 
pastel  the  artist  is  of  necessity  tied  down  to  hard 
actualities.  But  when  Fantin-Latour,  saturated 
with  noble  music,  undertook  a  lithograph,  the 
whole  poetry  of  the  man's  nature  had  unimpeded 
liberty.  In  the  case  of  his  lithographs  M.  Fan- 
tin's  unworldliness  is  almost  provoking.  He  would 


252   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

create  a  masterpiece  on  the  lithographic  stone, 
print  at  the  most  some  twenty  proofs  from  it, 
and  then  destroy  the  original,  while  this  same 
stone  could  have  printed  ten  times  the  number  of 
good  proofs.  For  this  reason  full  collections  of 
the  lithographs  are  very  difficult  to  form.  Two 
of  the  best  collections  in  existence  are  those  of 
the  late  Samuel  P.  Avery  of  New  York  and  Mr. 
Charles  L.  Freer  of  Detroit. 

The  whole  subject  of  lithography,  as  a  vehicle 
for  multiplying  the  autographic  design  of  the 
creative  artist,  is  now  receiving  serious  attention. 
In  original  etching  the  technical  difficulties  of 
the  "biting-in"  and  of  printing  from  the  plate 
are  very  great;  but  the  lithographic  stone  faith- 
fully yields  back  exactly  what  the  artist  has  drawn 
upon  it. 

M.  Fantin  never  achieved  a  great  outside 
popularity;  but  neither  did  that  old  master  in 
music,  Johann  Sebastian  Bach:  yet  after  the  lapse 
of  more  than  a  century  Bach  still  remains  the  musi- 
cians' musician,  and  similarly,  though  of  course 
in  a  lesser  degree,  few  competent  authorities  will 
demur  if  we  venture  to  call  Fantin-Latour  an 
artists'  artist. 


THE  ILLUSTRATORS  OF  "PUNCH" 

IF  the  illustrators  of  Punch  should  be  named 
in  the  order  of  their  comparative  importance, 
and  not  in  the  order  of  chronology,  such  a  list 
would  probably  read  —  Charles  Keene,  Phil  May, 
John  Leech,  and  George  du  Maurier. 

Taking  them,  however,  in  chronological  se- 
quence, we  commence  with  John  Leech,  who  in 
the  year  1841  became  the  "bright  particular 
star"  of  Punch,  and  so  remained  until  his  death 
in  1864.  He  was  born  in  London  in  1817,  of  Irish 
parentage,  and  was  a  pupil  at  Charterhouse 
school  along  with  Thackeray.  Leech  was  educated 
as  a  surgeon  (as  was  the  great  etcher  Sir 
Seymour  Haden),  but  his  unconquerable  bent 
towards  art  in  its  gayer  phases  led  him,  at  the  age 
of  twenty-four,  to  join  the  staff  of  Punch. 

In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that 
at  a  later  date  Sir  Seymour  Haden  published  a 
treatise  to  demonstrate  that  every  surgeon  should 
be  a  practical  draughtsman,  and  that  the  habit 
of  close  and  accurate  observation,  so  necessary 
to  the  surgeon,  was  in  itself  almost  a  training  in 
the  art  of  good  drawing. 

Leech's  designs  possess  the  quality  of  gaiety  in 
a  high  degree.  Even  when  he  was  satirical  this 
expression  of  genuine  fun  is  generally  the  dominant 

253 


254   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

note.  And  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  not 
one  of  the  famous  Punch  artists  expressed  himself 
through  caricature.  They  all  were  satirists  of  a 
refined  and  intellectual,  but  not  of  an  exaggerated 
type. 

Nearly  all  of  their  drawings  are  more  or  less 
slight  and  summary  in  execution.  There  is  good 
reason  for  this  —  or  rather,  a  sad  one:  until  quite 
recently  every  such  design  which  was  published 
as  a  woodcut  was  inevitably  annihilated  by  the 
engraver  in  the  process  of  engraving  it.  The 
artist  drew  his  picture  directly  on  the  wood  block, 
and  when  the  wood-engraver  had  (more  or  less 
faithfully)  done  his  work,  the  precious  design  of 
the  creative  artist  had  disappeared  in  the  pro- 
cess. All  that  now  remain  to  us  of  these  men's 
work  are  the  preliminary  studies  which  the  artist 
sketched  on  paper  —  as  a  guide  for  his  definitive 
picture  drawn  on  the  engraver's  block  of  box- 
wood. But  still,  these  first  studies  possess  the 
prime  merit  of  spontaneity,  —  and  an  artist  sel- 
dom does  better  through  subsequent  elaboration 
of  his  picture. 

Happily  for  art,  the  illustrators  of  our  own  time 
can  belie  the  old  proverb;  they  can  now  "eat  their 
cake  and  have  it  too."  Thus,  when  an  artist  of 
the  high  rank  of  Mr.  Phil  May  supplies  a  drawing 
to  Punch  he  does  not  sell  it,  he  only  sells  the  use 
of  it,  and  after  such  drawing  has  been  photo- 
graphed for  reproduction  the  original  is  handed 
back  to  the  artist  intact,  as  being  his  own  property, 
which  he  can  dispose  of  as  he  pleases  —  except 


rt 
g 


W 

K—  i 
C 

^  - 

r 

Q  ~ 


."O 


^    c3 

13  S 

c  & 


"O 
^S 

—  — 

fH 

So 


T3    SO 

^•a 

li 


W  •g  § 

C£3      TT-.      S 

CO         ~— ' 

•«!  1:3 

«  1^ 

IH 


a 

a3 


a3 

4)  -•          ^ 

aS  T'   £?  W) 

^qo..  «    a 

I'll  I 

O"  °  "S 

II- 

-*  HH      r-       SR 


»  X! 
\~3  ^j. 


s  g  5' 

«—Lj! 


f  S  'Sc^  h  "-:  T! 
£   S   M  o-S,  «    oj 

£  8^  ai  «o 

.&.£•« -2  a  J  >, 

U  "-H     O  ci   -^   ( ft 


THE  ILLUSTRATORS  OF  PUNCH  255 

that  he  cannot  allow  it  to  be  reproduced  by  some 
other  publisher. 

Charles  Keene  was  of  Scottish  parentage,  but 
was  born  at  Hornsey,  now  a  part  of  London,  in 
1823.  He  never  married,  but  kept  house  with  an 
elder  sister  who,  as  well  as  Keene  himself,  very 
often  figures  in  his  pictures.  His  ever-growing 
fame  has  been  slow  in  obtaining  its  just  due  of 
recognition  here.  This  is  partly  because  of  his 
innate  modesty  as  man  and  as  artist;  but  mainly 
because  his  work  was  so  intensely  British.  Diirer 
was  not  more  thoroughly  German  in  his  art, 
Rembrandt  more  Dutch,  or  Velasquez  more  Span- 
ish —  than  Keene  was  English. 

In  Harper's  Magazine  of  November,  1901,  Mr. 
Harry  Furniss  (still  another  of  the  famous  men 
of  Punch)  gives  an  intimate  and  spirited  account 
of  Keene.  It  was  on  the  occasion  of  a  dinner 
of  the  editorial  staff,  given  to  celebrate  the  instal- 
lation in  1881  of  Mr.  Burnand  as  editor.  He 
writes:  "On  this  particular  occasion  it  was  my 
vis-a-vis,  Charles  Keene,  who  interested  me  more 
than  any  other  person  present.  He  wore  black 
kid  gloves,  and  never  removed  them  at  all  during 
dinner.  That  puzzled  me.  Why  he  wore  them 
I  cannot  say.  I  never  saw  him  wearing  gloves 
at  table  again,  or  even  out  of  doors.  Then  he 
was  in  trouble  with  his  cigar,  and  finally  I  no- 
ticed that  he  threw  it  under  the  table  and  stamped 
upon  it,  and  produced  his  dirty  Charles  the  First 
pipe,  the  diminutive  bowl  of  which  he  filled  con- 
tinually with  what  smokers  call  'dottles." 


256        THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Having  quoted  Mr.  Furniss's  lively  paragraph, 
it  may  be  added  that  this  same  ugly  little  pipe 
of  Keene's,  which  never  cost  him  more  than  a 
ha'penny  when  it  was  new,  is  now  in  an  American 
collection  —  although  no  man  would  be  so  rash 
as  to  call  it  a  work  of  art! 

The  Century  Magazine  of  October,  1897,  con- 
tained an  excellent  illustrated  article  by  Mr. 
Joseph  Pennell,  entitled  "The  Art  of  Charles 
Keene."  Here  we  have  one  master  of  pen- 
drawing  expounding  the  genius  of  another.  Mr. 
Pennell  concludes  his  article  with  these  words: 
"He  was  just  'C.  K.,'  the  greatest  English  artist 
since  Hogarth."  This  strong  assertion  is  borne 
out  by  that  of  another  authority,  Mr.  George 
Somes  Layard  (himself  the  biographer  of  Keene), 
who  declares  of  him  in  Scribner's  Magazine:  "He 
was  the  greatest  of  all  English  artists  in  black 
and  white,  and  this  superlative  is  used  here  with- 
out hesitation." 

George  du  Maurier  is  the  most  widely  known 
of  the  four  artists  here  considered.  Let  any  man 
write  a  very  popular  book  and  he  soon  becomes 
known  to  millions  of  intelligent  people.  Such 
wide  popularity  came  to  du  Maurier  through  his 
novel  "Trilby"  (the  pictures  as  well  as  the  text), 
although  he  was  already  very  well  known  through 
his  pictures  in  Punch. 

It  was  the  pose  of  a  few  critics  to  maintain 
that  he  was  not  a  great  draughtsman,  that  his 
work  lacked  variety  and  was  full  of  mannerisms; 
but  these  same  objectors  would  doubtless  admit 


SUNDAY  AT  THE  ZOO 

Mr.   Murphy.      "Excuse  me,  Sorr,  but  cud  ye  direct  me   to  the   goin'  out 
intrance?" 

Size  of  the  original  drawing,  1%  by  5  inches. 
Drawn  by  Phil  May. 


&*. 


THE   AMATEUR  PHOTOGRAPHER 

Size  of  the  original  drawing,  7^  by  5j  inches. 
Drawn  by  Phil  May.     The  writing  below  is  that  of  the  artist. 


THE  ILLUSTRATORS  OF  PUNCH  257 

that  they  never  saw  a  picture  of  his  which 
did  not,  at  least,  compel  their  attention.  He 
possessed  in  a  high  degree  that  rare  and  intan- 
gible gift  of  personality — or  what  the  French  call 
temperament. 

Du  Maurier's  notorious  quarrel  with  Whistler 
(or  rather  Whistler's  quarrel  with  him)  grew  out 
of  a  witty,  and  not  unkindly,  page  in  the  novel 
"Trilby."  All  the  same,  Whistler  compelled  the 
publishers  to  suppress  it.  As  for  du  Maurier, 
he  was  by  no  means  one  of  those  geniuses  who 
feel  it  incumbent  upon  them  to  attack  and  abuse 
their  friends  and  acquaintances.  The  present 
writer  knew  him  as  a  modest,  reasonable,  well- 
bred  man,  and  in  social  intercourse  he  was  a 
delightful  companion  by  reason  of  his  French 
brightness  and  vivacity.  He  was  born  at  Paris 
in  1834,  but  removing  to  London  at  the  age  of 
seventeen,  he  died  there  in  1896. 

In  considering  Phil  May  in  company  with 
his  three  famous  predecessors  we  must  put  the 
clock  of  Time  forward  about  a  third  of  a  century. 
Phil  May  was  bora  in  1864  and  died  in  1903. 
He  was  one  of  the  most  highly  paid  illustrators 
in  the  world.  Like  every  master  in  art,  his  style 
was  all  his  own.  His  pictures  are  free  and  dashing, 
he  never  wastes  a  line  and  he  never  misplaces  a 
line.  As  a  draughtsman  he  is  so  unerring  that  he 
reminds  one  of  the  great  singer  who,  when  accused 
of  having  sung  a  note  out  of  tune,  calmly  answered 
that  the  thing  was  impossible  —  for  the  good 
reason  that  he  never  sang  out  of  tune! 


258   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

He  was  known  to  the  writer  as  one  of  the  most 
amiable  and  interesting  men  in  London,  and  he 
was  quite  unspoiled  by  his  brilliant  success. 

The  art  of  such  a  master  in  painting  as  G.  F. 
Watts  is  evidently  removed  from  the  art  of  Phil 
May  "as  far  as  the  east  is  from  the  west,"  and  yet 
that  illustrious  painter  declared:  "Other  men 
may  have  great  talent,  but  to  me  Phil  May  was 
simply  a  genius." 


CHARLES  KEENE 

THE  artistic  and  literary  relations  of  Eng- 
land and  the  United  States  are  now  become 
so  intimate  that  famous  British  writers  or  illus- 
trators no  longer  need  any  detailed  introduction 
to  people  of  taste  in  America. 

But  the  late  Charles  Keene  was  one  of  the  excep- 
tions. His  ever-growing  fame  has  been  slow  in 
obtaining  its  just  due  of  recognition  here.  This 
is  partly  because  of  his  innate  modesty  as  man 
and  as  artist,  but  mainly  because  his  work  was 
so  intensely  British.  Diirer  was  not  more  thor- 
oughly German  in  his  art,  Rembrandt  more  Dutch, 
or  Velasquez  more  Spanish  than  Keene  was 
English;  and  where  is  the  artist  so  likely  to  find 
subjects  of  real  value  as  in  his  own  country,  where 
he  "lives  and  moves  and  has  his  being"? 

The  depicting  of  ancient  classical  scenes  by 
David  and  his  school,  or  of  ancient  Roman  epi- 
sodes by  Alma  Tadema,  are  all  very  well;  but 
really  vital  art  is  the  product  of  the  artist's  own 
times,  his  own  country,  and  his  intimate  sur- 
roundings. 

It  is  by  no  means  essential  that  the  man  whom 
posterity  delights  to  honor  as  a  great  original  artist 
should  have  been  the  producer  of  ambitious  and 
immense  paintings  —  such  as  those  of  Rubens. 

259 


260       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

In  Paris,  where  art  really  is  held  in  reverence,  the 
subject  of  their  latest  public  canonization  was  the 
modest  lithographer  Raffet,  a-  man  who  had  lived 
and  died  poor  and  obscure,  probably  having  never 
in  his  life  earned  such  "big  wages"  as  are  paid  in 
New  York  to  a  plumber  or  a  bricklayer;  but  to-day, 
in  the  garden  of  the  Louvre,  Raffet's  monument 
confronts  that  of  Meissonier. 

Similarly,  during  the  long  years  when  Charles 
Keene  was  producing  masterpieces  in  black  and 
white,  his  very  name  was  hardly  known — although 
from  the  very  first,  certain  artists  throughout 
Europe  had  a  way  of  buying  and  preserving 
periodicals  containing  pictures  which  bore  the 
modest  signature  "C.  K." 

Not  many  days  after  his  death  in  1891,  I  took 
occasion  to  make  the  following  mention  of  him 
in  a  lecture  delivered  before  the  Grolier  Club  on 
the  subject  of  some  famous  etchers  whom  I  had 
known:  "Keene  was  a  good  etcher,  but  was  pre- 
eminent as  a  designer  of  comic  and  satirical  sub- 
jects. For  the  past  thirty  years  his  spirited  and 
thoroughly  artistic  sketches  have  appeared  almost 
continuously  in  the  columns  of  the  London  Punch. 
He  had  not  the  dainty  and  elegant  touch  of  du 
Maurier  nor  the  severe  distinction  of  style  of 
Sir  John  Tenniel  —  but  he  will  be  missed  more 
than  either  of  these  able  men  would  be.  No  other 
hand  can  ever  draw  as  he  has  done  —  the  farmer, 
the  Scotchman,  the  Irishman,  the  *  cabby/  the 
policeman,  the  waiter,  the  landlady,  the  maid- 
servant, and  the  common  little  boy  and  girl.  In 


"CUT  SHORT" 

"How  would  you  like  your  hair  cut,  Sir?" 
"In  silence!" 

Size  of  the  original  drawing,  4|  by  4j  inches. 

From  the  drawing  in  pen  and  ink  by  Charles  Keene.     This  subject  was  redrawn 
in  an  elaborated  form  and  was  published  in  "Punch" 


CHARLES  KEENE  261 

an  article  published  after  his  death  the  Pall  Mall 
Gazette  says,  'Painters  and  draughtsmen  alike 
place  Charles  Keene  at  the  head  of  all  the  artists 
who  have  ever  drawn  for  Punch." 

What  has  become  of  the  original  drawings  which 
masters  like  Keene  have  executed  for  reproduc- 
tion through  wood-engraving  up  to  ten  or  fifteen 
years  ago?  Nearly  all  of  the  precious  originals 
which  were  thus  published  have  been  annihi- 
lated in  the  process  of  reproduction.  The  artist 
made  his  drawing  on  the  wood-block  direct,  and 
the  engraver  in  cutting  the  block  (more  or  less 
faithfully)  of  necessity  destroyed  the  artist's 
original  design.  Thus  it  happens  that  very  few 
of  the  earlier  published  designs  of  Keene  and  his 
contemporaries  remain  in  existence  —  and  the 
loss  is  irreparable.  Fortunately  for  art  in  the 
present  day,  what  is  vaguely  termed  "process" 
work  gives  us  not  only  a  tolerably  faithful  copy 
of  the  artist's  drawing,  but  also  allows  the  draw- 
ing itself  to  remain  intact. 

But  most  happily  for  the  memory  of  Charles 
Keene  it  happens  that  his  very  best  original  works 
are  still  available.  These  are  the  intimate  little 
studies  and  sketches  which  he  did  solely  for  him- 
self, and  which  have  been  piously  preserved  by 
his  family.  When  he  worked  for  publication  he 
was  bound  to  subordinate  his  own  artistic  convic- 
tions to  the  requirements  of  his  editor  —  who  in 
turn  was  tied  down  to  the  taste  of  the  "big 
public";  and  no  artistic  creator  is  at  his  best 
unless  when  he  works  to  please  himself  alone. 


GEORGE    DU    MAURIER 

ARTIST,  HUMORIST,  NOVELIST 

IN  this  strange  world  of  ours  it  certainly  is  "the 
unexpected  which  happens."  Within  the  past 
week  the  greatest  of  living  Englishmen,  Gladstone, 
now  eighty-six  years  old,  has  been  thrilling  the 
civilized  world  with  his  unimpaired  eloquence  in 
the  cause  of  justice  and  mercy,  while  the  same 
newspapers  that  reported  his  great  appeal  also 
contained  the  news  that  George  du  Maurier  — 
young  enough  to  be  Gladstone's  son  —  was 
"slightly  indisposed."  Later  we  read  that  he 
was  "resting  quietly";  and  by  Thursday  last  he 
was  resting  quietly  indeed  —  for  he  was  dead. 

I  have  sometimes  expressed  the  hope  that  du 
Maurier 's  life  would  outlast  my  own,  and  now 
that  he  is  gone  I  am  one  of  the  many  who  will 
miss  him  sadly.  When,  during  my  yearly  so- 
journ in  London,  I  would  visit  some  reading-room 
where  all  the  best  periodicals  were  at  hand,  some 
dominating  impulse  always  led  me  to  do  the  same 
thing.  I  would  first  get  hold  of  the  latest  number 
of  Punch.,  and  next  I  would  seek  out  in  it  the 
picture  by  du  Maurier.  But  I  had  not  done 
with  him  when  I  had  done  with  his  picture,  for 
the  printed  legend  below  —  often  brilliantly  witty 
and  always  of  delicious  literary  quality  —  was 
his  work  as  well. 

262 


PORTRAIT  OF  THE   ARTIST 

Size  of  the  original  drawing,  4|  by  3f  inches. 
From  the  drawing  by  George  du  Maurier 


K  .5  S 

fe^-g 

°  ^  «J 

£     M-^ 

2;  a  « 

D  2  ^ 

«"3  c 
S  »H 


OH     £-3 

PH 


=: 


OJ    O 
««-i    rt 

°2 


GEORGE  DU  MAURIER  263 

Punch's  salutary  rule  used  to  be  that  the  artists 
should  confine  themselves  to  illustrating  the  sub- 
jects furnished  them  by  the  literary  staff,  but  du 
Maurier  was  too  big  a  man  to  be  trammeled  by  an 
editor's  rule;  and  it  was  this  very  practise  of  his 
which  made  a  trained  writer  of  him,  so  that 
when,  at  the  age  of  nearly  sixty,  he  produced  his 
first  novel,  his  book  bore  no  trace  of  the  "'pren- 
tice hand,"  and  he  at  once  took  rank  with  the 
eminent  veterans  of  contemporary  literature. 

Nobody  will  feel  disposed  to  contradict  me 
when  I  say  that  it  is  not  in  me  to  make  so  good 
an  editor  as  Mr.  Alden  of  Harper's  Magazine! 
It  is  certain  that  he  was  right  and  I  was  wrong 
in  our  first  estimate  of  du  Maurier  as  a  novelist. 
When  I  read  "Peter  Ibbetson,"  though  I  found 
the  earlier  chapters  charming,  yet  the  rest  of  the 
book  seemed  to  me  to  be  unreal  and  almost 
tiresome;  and  so,  when  a  second  story,  entitled 
"Trilby,"  was  announced  as  forthcoming,  I  was 
tempted  to  think  that  the  editor  had  made  a 
mistake.  Well,  "Trilby"  proved  to  be  a  delight 
to  the  whole  English-speaking  world;  but  unless 
a  man  has  lived  among  the  artists  of  the  Latin 
Quarter  in  Paris  he  cannot  know  how  entirely 
good  the  book  is.  Was  there  ever  so  good  a 
novel  so  well  illustrated  by  its  author?  I  think 
not.  Thackeray's  text  of  "Vanity  Fair"  out- 
weighs that  of  "Trilby,"  but  du  Maurier's  illustra- 
tions are  incomparably  better  than  Thackeray's. 

And  yet  it  was  the  custom  of  a  few  critics  to 
maintain  that  du  Maurier  was  not  a  great 


264        THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

draughtsman,  that  his  work  was  full  of  manner- 
isms and  lacked  variety.  But  these  same  object- 
ors would  doubtless  admit  that  they  never  saw 
a  picture  of  his  which  did  not  at  least  compel  their 
attention.  There  is  imperfect  and  even  incor- 
rect drawing  which  is  noble  and  great  because 
it  is  full  of  character  and  of  the  personality  of 
the  artist  —  and  there  is  faultless  drawing  which 
is  banal  and  commonplace,  and  consequently 
worthless. 

Du  Maurier  possessed  in  an  eminent  degree 
this  intangible  and  rare  gift  of  personality. 
There  was  no  mistaking  his  work  for  that  of  an- 
other. He  never  tried  to  be  a  caricaturist,  but 
he  was  a  satirist  of  refinement  and  elegance. 
He  could  at  will  make  gentlemen  of  his  men  and 
ladies  of  his  women,  and  as  for  his  pictures  of 
children,  "we  shall  not  look  upon  their  like  again." 

Incidentally,  ladies  and  gentlemen  dress  well, 
and  (likewise  incidentally)  du  Maurier  never 
failed  to  present  his  personages  in  the  most  taste- 
ful and  fashionable  attire,  so  that  many  ladies 
rejected  the  hideous  images  which  they  found  in 
the  fashion  papers  and  adopted  du  Maurier's 
costumes  from  the  pages  of  Punch. 

What  a  glorious  group  of  illustrators  were  du 
Maurier  and  his  confreres!  The  veteran  Sir 
John  Tenniel,  whose  work  possesses  the  "grand 
style"  even  when  he  illustrates  a  child's  book, 
such  as  "Alice  in  Wonderland";  the  late  Charles 
Keene,  who  was,  in  the  judgment  of  artists,  the 
ablest  of  the  band  —  and  yet  he  never  succeeded 


GEORGE  DU  MAURIER  265 

in  drawing  a  lady  or  a  gentleman.  Linley 
Sambourne's  work  has  always  interested  me 
greatly;  that  of  Harry  Furniss  much  less;  but  du 
Maurier's  work  most  of  all. 

My  own  personal  acquaintance  with  him  need 
not  be  detailed.  He  was  not  one  of  those  geniuses 
who  feel  it  incumbent  upon  them  to  attack  or 
abuse  all  their  friends  and  acquaintances,  but  was 
a  modest,  reasonable,  well-bred  man. 

His  successor  on  the  staff  of  Punch  is  Phil  May, 
a  young  artist  of  great  promise  and  one  whom 
nobody  can  accuse  of  being  an  indifferent 
draughtsman.  Mr.  May  has  made  a  great  name 
for  himself  as  an  illustrator  —  but  can  he  fill  du 
Maurier's  place?  Nobody  can  ever  do  that. 

October  15,  1896. 


WHAT  ETCHINGS  ARE 

INTRODUCTION 

THE  following  notes  were  originally  written 
for  two  young  people  who  love  pictures,  but 
who  as  yet  have  everything  to  learn  about  them. 
They  are  therefore  addressed  to  the  young,  and 
to  any  others  who  may  not  have  already  made 
themselves  familiar  with  the  subject.  Most  of 
the  existing  books  on  etching  very  properly  assume 
a  certain  amount  of  elementary  knowledge  on 
the  part  of  the  reader,  but  the  aim  of  these  notes 
is  to  begin  at  the  very  beginning,  seeing  that 
they  are  addressed,  not  to  those  who  know,  but 
to  those  who  do  not. 

There  is  no  surer  safeguard  toward  keeping 
our  children  in  the  right  way  than  by  giving  them 
such  intellectual  resources  within  themselves  as 
are  afforded  by  refining  and  ennobling  pursuits, 
such  as  the  love  of  nature,  or  of  good  books,  good 
music,  or  good  pictures. 

"  For  Satan  finds  some  mischief  still,  for  idle  heads  to  do." 

\ 

WHAT  AN   ETCHING   IS 

An  etching  is  an  impression  printed  from  an 
etched  metal  plate  —  and  not  a  pen-and-ink  draw- 
ing, as  is  sometimes  supposed. 

266 


WHAT  ETCHINGS  ARE  267 

Few  people,  comparatively,  have  ever  examined 
one  of  these  plates  from  which  etchings  are  printed, 
but  almost  every  one  has  seen  the  engraved 
copper-plate  which  prints  a  visiting  card. 

In  examining  such  a  card-plate  it  will  be  seen 
that  the  name  it  bears  is  cut  into  the  copper,  and 
cut  in  reverse  or  backward.  To  print  a  card 
from  this  plate  a  thick  oily  ink  is  rubbed  into 
these  engraved  lines  —  where  it  remains  while 
the  surface  of  the  copper  is  wiped  clean;  a  blank 
card  is  then  laid  over  the  plate,  and  both  are 
passed  through  a  roller  press.  The  result  is  that 
the  ink  is  transferred  from  the  engraved  lines  in 
the  copper-plate  to  the  cardboard;  each  card 
printed  requires  a  separate  inking  and  wiping 
of  the  copper-plate.  The  printing  process  re- 
verses the  direction  of  the  engraved  inscription, 
so  that  what  is  seen  to  the  right  on  the  copper- 
plate is  seen  to  the  left  in  the  proof  printed 
from  it. 

Now  the  principle  is  the  same  in  printing  an 
etching,  and  when  it  is  once  clearly  understood 
how  an  etching  is  printed  it  will  be  easy  to  learn 
how  the  etched  plate,  which  prints  these  impres- 
sions, is  made. 

HOW  AN   ETCHING  IS  MADE 

An  etched  plate  is  usually  of  copper  (though 
both  steel  and  zinc  are  sometimes  used).  The 
plate  is  coated  with  a  sort  of  varnish  composed 
of  wax  and  other  ingredients,  and  upon  this 


268   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

"ground"  the  artist  draws  his  design  with  an 
etching-needle.  Each  line  so  drawn  displaces  the 
coating  or  ground  and  leaves  the  copper  bare. 
The  plate  is  then  immersed  in  a  preparation  of 
aqua-fortis,  and  wherever  a  line  has  been  drawn, 
the  powerful  acid  corrodes  or  "bites"  a  corre- 
sponding line  or  channel  into  the  copper,  while 
at  the  same  time  it  does  not  reach  those  parts 
of  the  plate  which  remain  protected  by  the  var- 
nish. It  is  in  this  way  that  aqua-fortis  does  the 
actual  engraving  of  an  etched  plate;  while  in 
engraving  proper,  the  lines  which  form  the  com- 
position are  cut  into  the  copper  by  means  of  a 
tool. 

When  the  plate  has  lain  in  the  "bath"  until 
all  the  lines  of  the  design  have  been  "bitten  in" 
by  the  acid,  it  is  taken  out,  and  if  it  were  then 
cleaned,  it  could  be  printed  from  in  the  manner 
already  described.  By  remembering  how  the  card- 
plate  is  printed  from,  we  will  readily  understand 
that  the  black  parts  of  the  printed  etching  will 
correspond  to  the  lines  bitten  into  the  copper,  while 
the  white  parts  will  correspond  to  those  spaces 
of  the  copper  surface  which  have  been  protected 
from  the  acid  by  the  "ground"  or  varnish. 

But  our  plate  is  not  yet  finished;  for  if  a  trial 
proof  were  now  printed  it  would  be  seen  that  all 
the  lines  of  the  composition  were  of  an  equal 
strength,  and  we  know  that  in  any  picture  the 
nearest  objects  must  be  drawn  with  the  strongest 
lines,  and  that  the  lines  must  diminish  in  force 
to  express  comparative  distances.  To  effect  this, 


WHAT  ETCHINGS  ARE  269 

all  the  lightest  lines  of  the  etched  plate  are  filled 
in,  or  "stopped  out"  with  the  varnish,  so  that 
when  it  is  immersed  in  the  bath  a  second  time  the 
acid  no  longer  reaches  them,  while  this  second 
biting  adds  strength  to  the  other  lines.  Fur- 
ther "stoppings  out"  with  varnish  and  "rebi tings" 
with  the  acid  are  necessary  before  the  various 
lines  of  the  plate  have  their  proportionate  grada- 
tions of  force  and  tone. 


WHAT  A   DRY-POINT   IS 

Although  most  etchers  occasionally  produce 
plates  by  the  dry-point  process,  yet  the  two  arts 
are  distinct,  and  the  term  "a  dry-point  etching " 
is  a  misnomer.  The  word  etching  means  corro- 
sion (with  aqua-fortis),  while  in  dry-point  no  acid 
is  applied  to  the  plate,  but  the  lines  are  cut 
directly  into  the  dry  copper  by  means  of  the  point 
or  needle.  Dry-point  is  really  a  sort  of  freehand 
engraving,  but  the  result  is  widely  different  in 
effect  from  the  formal  exactitude  of  line  engrav- 
ing. The  rich  and  velvety  effect  of  a  dry-point  is 
owing  to  the  "burr,"  or  rough  edge  of  the  copper, 
which  the  "point"  throws  up  as  it  cuts  the  plate; 
this  "burr"  is  purposely  left  in  certain  parts  of 
the  plate,  because  as  it  projects  above  the  surface  I 
it  can  retain  more  of  the  ink  than  any  other  sort 
of  line,  and  this  rich  supply  of  ink  is  transferred 
to  the  paper  in  printing.  A  dry-point  will  not 
yield  nearly  so  many  good  proofs  as  an  etched 
plate,  but  the  early  impressions  are  very  soft 


270        THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

and  beautiful.     Many  etched  plates  are  afterward 
finished  and  enriched  with  dry-point. 

HOW   ETCHINGS   ARE   PRINTED 

There  is  one  radical  difference  between  the  print- 
ing of  etched  or  engraved  plates  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  printing  of  wood-cuts,  lithographs,  music, 
and  letter-press  on  the  other.  This  difference  is, 
that  in  the  latter  case  it  is  the  surface  which  leaves 
its  impression  in  ink  upon  the  paper,  while  the 
case  is  reversed  with  engraved  or  etched  plates, 
for  it  is  the  surface  which  prints  white  and  the 
cut  in  lines  which  print  black.  To  print  the  pages 
of  a  book  or  the  wood-cuts  that  are  inserted  with 
the  type,  an  inked  roller  is  rapidly  passed  over 
the  surface,  and  this  surface  imprints  its  inked 
impression  on  the  paper.  This  is  done  so  rapidly 
that  a  large  edition  of  a  book  or  a  newspaper  can 
be  printed  by  machinery  in  a  few  hours  —  and 
the  special  value  of  the  wood-cut  or  the  "proc- 
ess" plate  is  that  it  can  be  thus  printed  rapidly 
and  cheaply  along  with  the  letter-press. 

But  when  we  come  to  the  printing  of  an  etched 
plate,  the  conditions  are  changed.  The  work 
which,  in  the  case  of  the  wood-cut  or  the  letter- 
press, literally  "went  by  steam,"  now  requires 
great  deliberateness  and  great  knowledge,  for  the 
printing  of  etchings  is  a  fine  art,  and  the  man  who 
can  print  them  worthily  must  himself  have  the 
spirit  of  an  artist  —  just  as  the  man  who  would 
perform  a  composition  by  Beethoven  must  him- 
self be  a  musician. 


WHAT  ETCHINGS  ARE  271 

For  this  reason  some  etchers  print  their  own 
plates;  but  very  few  of  them  possess  the  manual 
skill  of  a  trained  printer;  and  hence,  the  more 
usual  way  is  for  the  artist  to  superintend  and 
direct  the  printing  of  the  first  trial  proofs,  and 
when  the  printer  succeeds  in  producing  one  that 
is  entirely  satisfactory,  this  proof  is  given  him 
to  serve  as  the  model  which  he  must  follow  in 
printing  the  remainder  of  the  edition. 

The  printing  of  engravings  is  a  mechanical 
process,  in  comparison;  after  the  lines  are  charged 
with  ink,  the  surface  of  the  plate  is  wiped  quite 
clean,  and  that  is  all.  But,  with  etchings,  the 
infinite  variety  of  effect  is  partly  owing  to  the 
manipulation  of  the  printer.  To  exemplify  this, 
an  extreme  case  may  be  mentioned:  A  French 
etcher  —  the  Count  Lepic  —  published  a  set  of 
etchings,  representing,  respectively,  morning,  noon, 
evening,  night,  sunshine,  rain,  fair  weather,  and 
storm  —  and  yet  all  of  these  proofs  were  printed 
from  one  and  the  same  etched  plate!  It  was 
simply  the  variety  of  treatment  in  printing  that 
made  different  pictures  of  them. 

To  see  an  accomplished  printer  about  to  print 
an  etching  one  would  almost  think  that  he  was 
the  artist,  and  that  he  was  then  making  the 
picture. 

After  covering  the  whole  plate  with  thick,  oily 
ink,  so  as  to  fill  the  lines,  he  wipes  away  the 
superfluous  ink  from  the  surface.  In  a  part  of 
the  composition,  where  the  effect  should  be  gloomy 
and  mysterious,  he  allows  a  thin  film  of  the  ink 


272       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

to  remain  on  the  surface  of  the  plate;  in  another 
part,  where  the  light  should  be  vivid  and  bril- 
liant, he  wipes  away  the  surface  ink  until  the  plate 
shines;  again,  where  the  lines  should  be  soft  and 
rich,  instead  of  harsh  and  wiry,  he  draws  the  ink 
out  of  these  lines  and  over  their  edges  by  means 
of  a  soft  muslin  rag.  At  this  stage  the  whole 
picture  is  seen  in  ink  on  the  copper-plate.  Now 
the  supreme  moment  has  come.  The  printer 
lays  his  plate  on  the  platform  of  the  press  and 
lays  the  sheet  of  dampened  paper  over  it;  the  press 
is  slowly  set  in  motion,  and  the  plate,  covered 
by  the  sheet  of  paper,  passes  under  the  heavy 
roller.  The  pressure  transfers  the  ink  from  the 
plate  to  the  paper,  and  the  proof  thus  printed 
is  carefully  removed  and  set  aside  to  dry,  while 
the  printer  proceeds  to  print  other  proofs  in  the 
same  manner. 

But  this  "artistic"  printing  should  always  be 
controlled  and  directed  by  the  artist  himself;  for 
it  is  in  the  power  of  the  printer  to  make  the  result 
•  a  different  thing  altogether  from  what  the  artist 
had  intended,  and  the  mere  printer  should  never 
"take  the  law  into  his  own  hands." 

Some  eminent  etchers  insist  upon  having  their 
plates  wiped  perfectly  clean,  so  that  no  shade  or 
tone  can  appear  in  the  proof  that  is  not  already 
etched  into  the  plate.  This  does  well  for  minutely 
etched  plates  of  small  size;  but  a  large  etching, 
destined  for  framing,  would  certainly  look  meagre 
and  cold,  if  printed  with  the  "clean  wipe." 


WHAT  ETCHINGS  ARE  273 

WHAT   ETCHINGS  ARE   PRINTED   UPON 

Both  the  paper  and  the  ink  play  an  important 
part  in  the  effect  of  an  etching. 

Formerly,  all  were  printed  with  black  ink,  on 
white  paper.  The  etchings  of  Rembrandt  and 
other  old  masters  were  so  printed,  but  the  mellow- 
ing effects  of  time  have  undoubtedly  improved 
these  old  prints,  since  both  the  paper  and  the  ink 
have  assumed  a  harmonious  brownish  tone,  which 
is  much  more  agreeable  to  the  eye  than  crude 
black  and  white. 

For  this  reason  a  warm-toned  brownish  ink  is 
often  used,  the  tone  being  varied  according  to 
the  effect  desired.  Old  paper,  of  good  quality, 
is  eagerly  sought  for  by  the  artists;  and  "many  a 
quaint  and  curious  volume  of  forgotten  lore" 
would  sell  to-day  for  many  times  its  actual  value, 
if  only  the  "lore"  had  been  omitted  and  the  pages 
had  remained  blank. 

As  old  paper  of  good  quality  is  becoming  more 
and  more  difficult  to  procure,  its  place  is  sup- 
plied by  the  next  best  substitutes. 

Japanese  paper  yields  beautiful  proofs,  by  rea- 
son of  its  warm,  mellow  tone  and  fine  surface;  but, 
if  Japan  proofs  are  left  exposed  and  unprotected, 
the  surface  soon  becomes  rough  and  "woolly."  It 
is  also  impossible  to  efface  anything  like  a  pencil- 
mark  from  Japan  paper  without  leaving  an  incur- 
able blemish  on  the  surface.  Of  course,  when  such 
proofs  are  framed,  or  protected,  with  "mats," 
there  is  no  longer  any  danger  of  injury  to  them. 


274       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Good  substantial  Holland  paper  is  probably 
the  best  for  general  use.  Its  tone  is  agreeable 
and  its  material  is  strong  and  durable;  and  if 
(as  is  very  likely)  some  of  our  contemporary 
etchings  will  be  valuable  in  centuries  to  come, 
the  amateurs  of  the  future  will  bless  those  etchers 
who  have  printed  their  works  on  honest  Holland 
paper,  while  they  will  be  tempted  to  curse  those 
who  were  so  foolish  as  to  print  theirs  on  flimsy 
and  perishable  stuff. 

What  is  called  India  paper  (it  is  really  Chinese) 
is  more  used  for  engravings  than  for  etchings. 
It  is  a  thin,  yellowish  paper,  and  is  nearly  always 
pasted  on  to  a  thick,  white  backing. 

Vellum  and  parchment  —  which  are  prepared 
calfskin  and  sheepskin  respectively  —  take  very 
delicate  and  luminous  impressions,  and  the  choicest 
proofs  of  many  of  the  finest  modern  etchings  are 
printed  on  these  materials.  Such  proofs  are  very 
difficult  to  print  and  are  also  difficult  to  frame 
properly,  but  their  effect  is  very  beautiful. 

Proofs  on  satin  have  a  good  effect  in  a  few 
cases,  but  they  do  not  suit  every  etching. 


WHAT  "PROOFS"  ARE 


There  is  a  good  deal  of  confusion  in  the  designa- 
tion of  the  various  proofs  or  "states"  of  a  plate, 
and  it  should  be  remembered  that  there  is  no 
fixed  and  inalterable  rule  to  regulate  the  order 
in  which  different  proof -states  are  issued,  or  the 
number  of  impressions  taken  in  each  state. 


WHAT  ETCHINGS  ARE  275 

A  proof  may  be  broadly  defined  as  an  impres- 
sion which  bears  intrinsic  evidence  that  it  is  one 
of  the  earliest  (and  consequently  finest)  which 
the  plate  has  yielded. 

We  have  all  heard  that  a  "new  broom  sweeps 
clean"  -similarly,  a  new  plate  prints  clean  and 
prints  well.  Every  impression  taken  wears  out 
the  plate  somewhat,  and  therefore  a  worn  plate 
can  only  yield  inferior  impressions. 

The  term  "proof"  retains  its  original  meaning 
when  applied  to  the  experimental  impression 
which  a  letter-press  printer  takes  when  he  has 
set  up  his  type,  and  which  he  submits  to  the  writer 
of  the  article  for  correction. 

Two  centuries  ago  an  engraved  plate  was  not 
supposed  to  be  finished  or  ready  for  publication 
until  after  the  title,  the  artist's  name,  and  other 
lettering  had  been  engraved  into  the  lower  mar- 
gin. But  it  often  happened  that  the  artist  — 
after  he  had  finished  the  pictorial  part  of  his  plate, 
but  before  he  had  added  these  inscriptions  — 
took  a  "proof"  to  satisfy  himself  that  his  work 
thus  far  was  perfect.  Such  an  impression  would 
be  without  any  lettering;  that  is,  a  veritable 
"proof  before  letters."  The  connoisseurs  of  those 
days  knew  quite  well  that  an  early  impression 
was  best,  and  when  they  found  one  of  these  experi- 
mental proofs  lacking  the  title,  they  knew  it  must 
be  a  very  early  one,  and  they  valued  it  accordingly. 

The  artists,  seeing  this,  took  the  hint  and  printed 
several  such  impressions  before  they  added  the 
lettering  to  their  plates;  and  from  this  begin- 


276       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

ning  the  whole  modern  system  of  proofs  has 
grown. 

This  evolution  took  the  following  course: 

First.  A  few  impressions  were  printed  with- 
out any  lettering  whatever;  these  were  called 
the  "artist's  proofs." 

Secondly.  The  names  of  the  painter  and  en- 
graver were  added,  in  small  letters;  this  second 
grade  was  called  the  "proofs  before  letters"  — 
that  is,  before  the  title. 

Thirdly.  The  title  was  added  in  outline  only, 
and  the  "open-letter  proofs"  were  taken. 

Fourthly.  The  outline  letters  of  the  title  were 
filled  in,  any  further  lettering  or  inscription  was 
added,  and  in  this  final  state  the  bulk  of  the 
edition  was  issued,  and  these  impressions  were 
called  the  "lettered  prints." 

During  all  these  additions  and  alterations  the 
plate  was  gradually  wearing  out  from  use,  the 
early  proofs  were  few  in  number  and  fine  in  qual- 
ity, and  in  consequence  they  sold  for  much  higher 
prices  than  the  lettered  prints. 

Two  other  modern  refinements  are  the  "Re- 
marque" proof  and  the  signed  artist's  proof. 
The  French  term  une  epreuve  de  remarque  is  simple 
and  intelligible,  and  any  Frenchman  will  know 
that  it  means  a  proof  bearing  a  special  mark; 
but  in  English  the  term  becomes  unmeaning, 
for  the  reason  that  our  word  "remark"  is  not  a 
translation  of  the  French  term  —  and  it  is  much 
to  be  desired  that  some  more  intelligible  English 
word  could  be  substituted. 


WHAT  ETCHINGS  ARE  277 

The  "remarque"  proof,  like  proofs  in  general, 
had  a  sort  of  accidental  origin.  While  the  plate 
was  in  progress  the  artist  sometimes  amused  f 
himself  —  or  tried  the  condition  of  his  etching- 
needle  —  by  scrawling  some  little  sketch  on  the 
blank  margin  of  the  plate.  It  was  easy  to  bur- 
nish out  this  sketch  before  the  formal  printing 
of  the  plate  had  begun,  but  occasionally  an  early 
proof  was  taken  beforehand.  This  was  a  veri- 
table "remarque"  proof,  and  the  informal  sketch- 
ing in  the  margin  was  evidence  of  its  earliness. 

In  the  case  of  some  line  engravings,  the  "re- 
marque"  is  indicated,  not  by  adding  a  sketch, 
but  by  leaving  some  trifling  detail  of  the  com- 
position unfinished. 

According  to  modern  usage,  the  "remarque" 
proof  indicates  the  very  choicest  condition  of 
the  plate  and  takes  precedence  of  the  artist's 
proof;  so  that  the  best  possible  state  of  a  contem- 
porary reproductive  etching  would  be  a  "re- 
marque"  proof,  printed  probably  on  vellum  and 
signed  by  the  etcher  (or  by  both  painter  and  etcher, 
if  the  plate  were  etched  from  a  picture  by  another 
contemporary  artist).  After  a  limited  number  of 
such  proofs  are  printed,  the  "remarque"  is 
effaced  from  the  copper-plate,  and  then  the  artist's 
proofs  are  taken. 

Some   distinguished   etchers   are   intolerant    of 
the  "remarque,"  and  insist  that  it  is  an  interrup- 
tion to  the  unity  of  the  main  composition.     In 
the  etched  work  of  Seymour  Haden,  for  instance,  ' 
no  such  thing  is  to  be  found. 


278   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

But  a  more  valuable  evidence  of  high  quality 
than   the  "remarque"    is   the   autograph   of   the 
•  artist  written  on  the  lower  margin  of  an  etching. 
I  The  etcher,  above  all  others,  should  be  the  judge 
\par  excellence   of   quality,   and   no    conscientious 
artist  will  affix  his  signature  to  a  proof  unless 
that  proof  is  all  that  it  should  be.     The  artist's 
signature  may  thus  be  compared  to  the  endorse- 
ment by  a  solvent  man  of  a  promissory  note. 
Occasionally,   when   an  etching   is   done  from   a 
painting  by  another  artist,  both  the  painter  and 
the  etcher  will  endorse  a  few  selected  proofs,  by 
adding  their  respective  signatures. 

WHAT  "STATES"  OF  AN  ETCHING  ARE 

"States"  and  "proofs"  signify  about  the  same 
thing;  but  the  former  term  is  usually  applied  to 
the  works  of  artists  who  etch  their  own  designs, 
instead  of  etching  copies  of  pictures  done  by  other 
men. 

Thus,  we  never  hear  of  an  "artist's  proof" 
etched  by  Rembrandt  or  Van  Dyck  or  Whistler, 
but  of  a  "first  state,"  "second  state,"  etc. 

Here,  again,  terms  are  sometimes  misleading; 
for  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  first  state 
of  a  painter-etching  is  invariably  the  best  — 
though  it  certainly  is  the  earliest.  In  many  cases 
such  a  first  state  is  no  more  than  a  meager  and 
unfinished  outline  of  the  intended  composition. 

What  is  most  desirable  is  the  first  finished 
state,  although  (as  in  the  case  of  Rembrandt) 


WHAT  ETCHINGS  ARE  279 

an  impression  in  the  earliest  finished  condition 
might  figure  in  the  books  of  reference  as  a  third 
or  fourth  state. 

A  very  simple  and  reasonable  method  of  classi- 
fication has  been  adopted  in  Sir  William  Drake's 
Catalogue  of  the  Etched  Work  of  Seymour  Haden. 
In  this  excellent  book  the  first  experimental 
impressions  from  an  unfinished  plate  (taken  by 
the  artist  for  his  own  guidance)  are  designated, 
not  as  "first  state,"  but  as  "trial  proof  A"* 
When  the  work  in  the  plate  is  carried  farther,  so 
that  a  second  experimental  printing  is  necessary, 
these  second  proofs  are  catalogued  as  "trial  proof 
J5,"  and  so  on,  until  the  plate  is  finished.  Then 
an  edition  is  printed  for  publication,  and  this 
first  finished  state  is  very  properly  designated 
as  the  "first  state."  Later  on,  if  any  further 
additions  or  alterations  are  made,  all  subsequent 
proofs  would  be  catalogued  as  "second  state."1 

The  number  of  proofs  taken  varies  so  greatly 
with  different  plates  that  it  is  impossible  to  lay 
down  any  general  rule  on  the  subject.  In  some 
cases  not  more  than  thirty  "remarque"  proofs 
are  printed,  but  in  others  more  than  twice  that 
number.  A  strongly  etched  plate  will  yield  a 
greater  number  of  good  proofs  than  one  in  which 

*It  may  interest  connoisseurs  to  note  that,  contrary  to  the  general 
usage,  Sir  Seymour  Haden  has  almost  invariably  produced  his  second  or 
third,  states,  not  by  adding  something  to  his  plate,  but  by  taking  some- 
thing out.  Thus,  in  the  case  of  his  renowned  Shere  Mill-pond,  the  lines 
which  appear  in  the  sky  of  the  first  state  are  all  taken  out  in  the  second, 
and  all  good  judges  must  agree  with  Sir  Seymour  that  this  alteration  has 
added  greatly  to  the  beauty  of  the  plate. 


280        THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

the  lines  are  fine  and  delicate.  Also,  the  recently 
discovered  method  of  "steel-facing"  a  copper- 
plate materially  increases  its  lasting  powers. 
This  "steel-facing"  is  an  electro-plating  process, 
which  lays  an  extremely  thin  film  of  steel  over 
the  etched  plate. 

Sometimes  an  artist  will  make  his  etching  arti- 
ficially rare  by  destroying  his  plate  after  print- 
ing a  very  few  impressions;  but,  in  any  case, 
there  is  a  limit  to  the  number  of  really  good  proofs 
which  any  plate  will  yield,  and,  provided  that 
the  etching  is  a  fine  work  of  art,  these  proofs  are 
almost  certain  to  increase  in  value  in  proportion 
as  they  become  scarce  and  difficult  to  procure. 
For  this  reason  a  collection  of  etchings,  intel- 
ligently purchased,  may  be  regarded  rather  as  a 
safe  investment  than  as  a  mere  fruitless  outlay. 

No  one  can  fully  appreciate  or  enjoy  what  he 
does  not  understand;  and,  when  once  etchings 
are  thoroughly  understood  from  the  technical 
side,  their  further  study  from  the  artistic  point 
of  view  will  be  found  both  easy  and  delightful. 

Good  etchings  are  veritable  works  of  art;  they 
are  accessible  to  all,  and  their  value  is  permanent; 
and  if  these  rudimentary  notes  should  lead  some 
readers  to  study  the  subject  in  its  higher  aspects, 
the  writer  will  feel  that  he  has  contributed 
something  toward  adding  a  new  and  very  real 
pleasure  to  their  lives. 


PITFALLS  FOR  TRANSLATORS 

Reprinted,  by  permission,  from  "The  Critic" 

REMEMBERING  that  there  is  no  danger  so 
much  to  be  feared  as  an  unsuspected  one, 
I  venture  to  make  a  few  suggestions  to  some  of 
the  American  and  English  translators  of  French 
books,  confining  these  suggestions  to  a  pecul- 
iarly dangerous  class  of  French  words;  namely, 
those  which  are  identical,  or  nearly  so,  with  words 
in  the  English,  but  of  which  the  meanings  differ 
more  or  less  widely.  And  it  is  the  apparent 
simplicity  of  such  words  which  makes  them  the 
pitfalls  into  which  unwary  or  inexperienced  trans- 
lators may  fall  —  to  the  sad  detriment  of  the 
French  author's  meaning. 

The  following  list  is  the  result  of  years  of 
reading,  observation,  and  note-taking;  but  I  am 
aware  that  in  publishing  it  I  may  be  digging  an- 
other sort  of  pitfall  for  myself,  and  that  it  might 
be  easy  to  confute  me  here  and  there  out  of  the 
dictionary.  The  best  dictionaries  —  such  as  the 
Century  or  Littre's  —  sometimes  bewilder  one 
by  their  very  copiousness,  and  a  simple  word  may 
be  strained  so  as  to  mean  almost  anything;  so 
that  the  translator,  unless  he  can  supplement  his 
academic  knowledge  of  French  with  an  intimate 
colloquial  knowledge  also,  is  often  actually  mis- 

281 


282   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

led  by  the  dictionary  or  by  a  blind  reliance  on 
the  Latin,  from  which  the  French  is  so  largely 
derived. 

For  these  reasons  I  desire  to  state  that,  in  the 
definitions  which  follow,  my  endeavor  is  to  confine 
myself  to  the  primary  and  generally  accepted  mean- 
ing of  each  word;  that  is,  to  French  "as  she  is 
spoke"  by  the  average  educated  Frenchman  of  the 
present  day,  or  "as  she  is  wrote"  in  the  contem- 
porary reviews  and  journals  of  Paris. 

This  being  my  point  of  view,  I  have  purposely 
refrained  from  consulting  any  dictionary,  either 
French  or  English,  though  I  am  not  so  silly  as 
to  suppose  that  I  can  measure  my  learning  with 
theirs.  All  that  I  attempt  is  to  give  some  results 
of  my  own  yearly  observation  in  Paris  during 
the  past  thirty  years. 

Accuser  (in  commerce).  To  acknowledge  re- 
ceipt of  something  sent. 

Adroit.  Dexterous,  handy.  Seldom  means  keen 
or  clever. 

Agrement.  Pleasure,  enjoyment.  Never  means 
an  agreement  in  the  English  sense. 

Amusant.  Interesting.  Very  often  mistrans- 
lated "amusing."  4 

Animal.  Not  necessarily  a  quadruped.  Birds, 
reptiles,  etc.,  are  des  animaux  in  French. 

Apologie.  A  vindication,  a  justification  of 
one's  acts.  Never  means  an  apology  in  the  mod- 
ern English  sense. 

Appointements.  The  salary  of  an  employe. 
Never  a  rendezvous  or  engagement. 


PITFALLS  FOR  TRANSLATORS  283 

Not  advice,  but  opinion.  Also  a  pub- 
lic notice  or  warning,  or  the  prefatory  note  to  a 
book. 

Brave.  Honest,  worthy,  good-hearted.  Not 
necessarily  courageous. 

Bureau.  An  office  for  the  transaction  of  busi- 
ness. Never  a  chest  of  drawers.  (The  English 
never  use  the  word  in  the  American  sense.) 

Caractere.  One's  natural  temper  or  disposi- 
tion —  not  one's  reputation  or  moral  qualities. 

Carcasse.  The  framework  of  any  construc- 
tion, not  the  dead  body  of  an  animal. 

Caution.  A  bail  bond.  Never  used  to  signify 
circumspection  or  foresight. 

Cite.  Not  a  city  as  we  understand  the  word, 
but  some  central  part  of  one  originally  fortified. 
The  "City"  of  London  is  used  in  the  French 
sense. 

Condition.  A  person's  station  in  life.  Never 
means  the  state  of  preservation  or  completeness 
of  a  thing. 

Controle.  A  duplicate  record  for  verification. 
The  verb  controler  means  to  verify  or  check  a 
record. 

Defense.  A  formal  interdiction  or  prohibition. 
Not  the  defending  of  a  thing. 

Defiance.     Suspicion.     Defiant.     Suspicious. 

Document.  Any  record.  A  sketch  for  some 
detail  of  a  picture  is  a  document. 

tfditeur.  A  publisher.  Never  an  editor  in  the 
English  sense.  The  French  word  for  the  latter 
is  Redacteur. 


284   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Envie.  Merely  desire.  To  "feel  like  doing'* 
anything. 

Figure.  The  face  of  a  person,  not  the  form  of 
the  whole  body. 

Hommage.  Very  often  used  to  characterize  any 
gift  or  present  given  to  an  equal.  It  has  no 
suggestion  of  lord  or  vassal. 

Honnete.  Civil,  well-mannered.  Malhonnete. 
Uncivil,  rude.  Probite  is  the  French  equivalent 
for  honesty. 

Hotel.  Any  important  dwelling  occupied  by 
only  one  family;  also,  a  public  hostelry.  A  pub- 
lic institution. 

Instruction.  Often  the  legal  inquiry  into  a 
crime. 

Juste.  Not  so  much  just  as  scanty,  barely 
sufficient.  It  is  also  the  term  to  describe  music 
which  is  in  tune. 

Labour.  The  act  of  digging  or  plowing  the 
earth.  Other  sorts  of  heavy  manual  work  are 
not  labour,  but  travail. 

Large.     Broad  only,  not  big  in  general. 

Lecture.  The  act  of  reading.  Never  a  lecture 
in  the  English  sense.  The  latter  would  be  une 
conference. 

Magasin.  A  place  where  goods  are  sold  or 
stored.  Such  a  periodical  as  The  Century  Maga- 
zine would  be  called  une  revue. 

Malin.     Not  malign,  but  sharp  and  clever. 

Maniaque.  Not  an  insane  person,  but  one  who 
is  unreasonably  particular  and  "fussy." 

Mignonette.    Pepper  ground  coarse;  also,  a  very 


PITFALLS  FOR  TRANSLATORS  285 

fine  kind  of  lace.  The  odoriferous  Jittle  flower  is 
in  French  called  Reseda. 

Misere.  Extreme  poverty  only.  The  word  does 
not  describe  other  sorts  of  misery. 

Monument.  Any  notable  edifice.  A  cathedral, 
palace,  or  fine  bridge  is  a  monument. 

Nerveux.  Muscular,  vigorous.  Nervous  in  the 
English  sense  would  be  enerve. 

Note.  A  bill,  an  account  to  be  paid.  Never  a 
short  letter. 

Office  (as  a  masculine  noun).  A  religious  cere- 
mony. Never  used  to  designate  a  place  for  the 
transaction  of  business. 

Office  (as  a  feminine  noun).  A  room  to  contain 
table  utensils  and  eatables,  a  pantry,  an  outhouse. 

Of  re.  A  gift,  an  offering.  Offrir  means  to 
give  unconditionally. 

Parent.  Any  blood  relation.  In  France  a  sec- 
ond cousin  is  a  parent  just  as  much  as  a  father  or 
mother. 

Particulier.  A  private  person,  or  (as  an  adjec- 
tive) belonging  to  a  private  person.  Not  for 
public  use. 

Partition.  A  full  musical  score  with  all  the 
parts.  Never  a  slight  division  between  two 
spaces. 

Plan.     Not  a  scheme  or  project,  but  a  diagram. 

Pretendre.  To  assert  formally.  To  claim  as 
a  right.  This  word  (a  specially  dangerous  one 
to  some  translators)  never  means  to  simulate. 

Romance.  A  short  song  set  to  music.  Never  a 
work  of  fiction,  which  would  be  un  roman. 


286        THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Sacre.  Rarely  means  sacred,  much  oftener 
means  cursed. 

Sauvage  (as  an  adjective).  Not  savage,  but 
simply  wild,  shy,  unsociable.  Any  animal  or 
plant  in  its  wild  state. 

Sinistre  (as  a  noun).  A  great  disaster,  such  as 
a  conflagration  or  an  explosion.  The  word  has 
no  suggestion  of  treachery. 

Spirituel  (as  an  adjective).  Witty,  intellec- 
tually delicate  and  expert.  This  word  can  rarely 
be  translated  spiritual. 

Vacation.  The  time  occupied  by  some  public 
function.  The  word  never  means  a  holiday. 

Vilain  (as  an  adjective).  Ugly,  unsightly.  There 
is  no  suggestion  of  villainy. 

Let  me  conclude  by  citing  one  example  of  how 
easily  such  mistakes  are  made.  I  was  in  Paris 
when  the  telegram  came  from  New  York  to  the 
French  press  announcing  the  sudden  death  of 
the  mind  reader,  Irving  Bishop.  This  item  as 
translated  and  printed  in  at  least  two  of  the  news- 
papers (which  I  saw)  must  have  caused  unwar- 
ranted emotion  in  ecclesiastical  circles,  for  it 
gravely  announced  that  the  bishop  of  New  York, 
Monsignor  Irving,  had  died  suddenly,  the  night 
before,  while  in  a  somnambulistic  trance! 


A   CHAPTER   OF   VERSE 

AMONG  MY  PRINTS 

James    L.    Claghorn,    seated    in    his    print-room, 
speaks,  — 

I  sit  among  my  folios  all, 

My  friends  in  black-and-white! 

And  silent  speakers  wise  as  fair 
Surround  me  as  I  write. 

With  pride  the  favorite  prints  I  see 

That  my  poor  walls  adorn, 
Symmetric  Line,  and  Etching  free, 

And  royal  Proofs  first-born. 

How  great  themes  crowd  upon  me  now, 
How  History's  lamp  burns  bright, 

The  lofty  scene,  the  great  man's  face, 
And  Fancy's  wayward  flight. 

Here  old  Olympus  lives  again 

Old  Grecian  tales  revive, 
And  poet,  warrior,  saint  and  sage, 

In  fadeless  beauty  live. 

Here  beams  the  gentle  Mary's  face 
(Each  painter's  highest  glory), 

And  Bethlehem's  Holy  Child  I  see, 
And  Calvary's  sacred  story. 

987 


288   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

No  need  to  sail  three  thousand  miles 

To  Dresden,  Florence,  Rome, 
Art's  greatest  master-works  to  know  — 

I  have  them  here  at  home! 

Come,  Father  Diirer!  rigid,  quaint, 

Solve  me  thy  mystery, 
What  broods  that  winged  woman  strange? 

That  weird  Knight,  where  rides  he? 

Come,  Rembrandt!  ha,  what  forms  are  these 

Clumsy,  uncouth,  and  poor! 
This  Virgin,  like  a  peasant  "Frau," 

Saint  Joseph  like  a  Boor! 

Nay,  pardon  me,  thou  artist  grand, 

'Tis  but  with  friends  I  jest, 
Of  all  the  cherished  favorites  here, 

Rembrandt!  I  love  thee  best! 

We  shall  not  part!  my  gentle  friends, 

Time  but  endears  us  more, 
Still  will  ye  cheer,  instruct,  refine, 

Till  here  my  days  are  o'er. 

Then  when  ye  pass  to  stranger  hands 

Good  fortune  still  befall, 
"Loved,  honored,  cherished,"  may  ye  be, 

For  ye  are  worth  it  all ! 


A  CHAPTER  OF  VERSE  289 


NOTES  ON  A  SERVICE  AT  OLD  TRINITY 
CHURCH,  NEW  YORK 

BY   AN   OUTSIDER 

"Dirty  streets  and  proud  people, 
High  Church  and  low  steeple." 

(Dean  Swft.) 

NEARLY  forty  years  ago  I  was  one  of  the 
two  tenor  singers  in  Trinity  Church.  Our 
organist  and  choirmaster  was  Dr.  Messiter,  who 
occupied  the  distinguished  position  for  thirty -one 
years,  and  who  made  the  Trinity  choir  the  model 
for  choirs  throughout  the  United  States. 

In  those  days  the  rector  was  Dr.  Morgan  Dix, 
and  the  other  chief  clergy  were  Dr.  Ogilby  and 
Dr.  Vinton  —  the  latter  being  generally  the 
preacher. 

The  two  organists  were  Messiter  and  Morgan. 
I  myself,  being  brought  up  a  Methodist,  had  small 
sympathy  with  the  high-church  ritualism  of  Trinity 
Church,  and  so,  one  Sunday  when  I  could  not 
listen  any  longer  to  the  sermon  of  Dr.  Vinton, 
which  was  all  about  the  authority  of  "The  Church," 
I  wrote,  from  my  stall  in  the  choir,  the  following 
wicked  rhymes.  It  must  be  remembered  that  Old 
Trinity,  being  enormously  rich,  had  none  of  the 
kindly  sociability  of  other  American  churches. 
My  verses,  of  which  there  was  only  one  copy,  were 
handed  about  among  the  clergy  until  they  reached 


290   THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

the  august  rector.  Dr.  Dix  sent  for  me  and  ad- 
ministered to  me  a  sharp  reprimand.  He  said 
that  he  would  have  "no  such  goings-on"  from  any 
employe  of  Trinity  Church,  and  he  confiscated  my 
manuscript,  locking  it  up  in  the  vestry  safe.  But 
he  could  not  confiscate  my  memory  of  my  own 
lines,  and  here  they  are: 

Fugue  on  great  organ,  grand  hurly-burly! 
Nice  little  boys,  Dutch  sextons  surly, 
Great  men  waited  on,  small  men  unheeded, 
Bevies  of  clergy  more  than  are  needed; 
Candles  in  daylight  wasting  their  wicks; 
Good  Doctor  Ogilby,  learn'd  Doctor  Dix; 
Strains  Messiterian  and  strains  Morganic, 
(Litany  intoned  in  discord  satanic!) 
Chords  organ-ic  and  chorales  choir-some, 
Music  ravishing,  sermon  tiresome, 
Platitudes  Vintonian,  devout  congregation, 
Service  of  three  mortal  hours'  duration, 
" Pride,  pomp  and  circumstance,"  —music  again, 
And  the  best  part  of  all  is — the  last  amen! 


A  CHAPTER  OF  VERSE  291 

GLUMBY'S  CART-HORSE 

Reprinted  from  the  "New  York  Tribune" 
(The  horse  speaks) 

Oats  in  a  nosebag,  hung  about  my  head, 

I'm  resting  now,  they've  shut  me  in  my  stable. 

Till  Glumby  comes  I  have  no  whip  to  dread, 
And  now  I'll  say  my  say  as  I  am  able. 

Strange  creatures  are  my  masters,  weak  and  frail, 
On  their  hind  feet  they  walk,  with  heads  held  high; 

And  yet  they  master  me  and  make  me  quail, 
Though  I  could  crush  them  as  I'd  crush  a  fly. 

How  well  I  love  my  friends  and  dread,  my  foes, 

I  think  of  both  as  I  stand  here  alone; 
The  kindly  errand-boy  who  pats  my  nose, 

Or  cross-ey'd  Jim  who  hits  me  with  a  stone. 

I'm  not  a  handsome  horse,  I'm  not  a  pet, 
I'm  only  a  poor  drudge  that  draws  a  cart; 

I  get  more  blows  than  compliments,  and  yet 
Under  my  lean  old  ribs  there  beats  a  heart. 

That  good  gray  mare  that  draws  the  dustman's  cart, 
I  love  to  meet  her,  joy  then  fills  my  cup; 

But  when  about  to  offer  her  my  heart, 

Crack  goes  the  whip  and  Glumby  yells  "git  up." 

The  saucy  sparrow  has  his  liberty; 

Why  don't  they  make  him  work?     He  has  no  friends: 
The  cat  and  dog  are  cared  for,  yet  they're  free, 

But  the  poor  horse's  bondage  never  ends. 


292 


I  haul  my  load  down  Broadway,  but  I  dread 
The  racket  and  the  roaring  and  the  "ruction." 

I  think  that  in  their  Bible  something's  said 

Of  the  "broad  way  that  leadeth  to  destruction." 

Is  there  a  Heaven  for  horses?    I  don't  know, 
My  masters  say  they  go  there  when  they  die. 

It's  not  like  Heaven  for  horses  here  below,  — 
It's  far  more  like  the  other  place,  say  I. 

I  have  no  hope,  I  hardly  have  much  dread; 

I  know  the  end,  it  will  not  vex  me  sore; 
Dragged  to  the  boneyard,  knocked  upon  the  head, 

And  then  a  painless  rest  for  evermore. 


THE  LADY  AND  THE  BURGLAR 

The  lady,  having  looked  under  her  bed  every 
night,  seeking  for  a  burglar,  at  last  finds  what  she 
was  looking  for.  She  says  to  him: 

Come  out  here  this  moment;  it's  no  place  for  you,  sir, 

You  nasty  black  burglar-man  under  the  "beddy." 
I've  just  caught  the  sight  of  your  big  hobnailed  shoe, 

sir, 

Sticking  out   near  the  cradle  Miss  Smith  gave  to 
Freddie. 

How  did  you  get  in  here?     The  doors  are  shut  tight 

now, 

You  came  down  the  chimney  and  that's  why  you're 
black,  sir; 


A  CHAPTER  OF  VERSE  293 

You  came  uninvited;  that  was  not  polite,  now; 

I  wonder  you  don't  get  ashamed  and  sneak  back, 
sir! 

Give  up  that  dark-lantern  and  butcher-knife  cruel, 
Now  come  without  kicking  or  bumping  your  head 

there  — 

Or  you'll  be  upsetting  the  milk  jug  and  gruel, — 
For  that's  where  I  keep  them,  just  under  the  bed 
there. 

That's    right,    come    out    quietly, — oh,    but    you're 

horrid! 

Why,  I  thought  every  robber  was  tall  and  romantic, 
Like  a  darling  young  preacher  with  high  classic  fore- 
head, 
But  you  are  so  ugly  you'd  soon  drive  me  frantic. 

Sit  down  hi  the  rocking  chair,  don't  make  a  noise  now, 
You'll  rouse  little  Polly  or  Freddie  her  brother; 

Has  your  wife  any  babies?  I've  two  little  boys  now, 
And  if  you  come  next  year  I'll  show  you  another. 

Are  you  there,  my  dear  mother?  This  murdering  villain 
I  found  "lurking  privily"  under  the  bed,  ma'am; 

Keep  out  of  his  reach,  for  his  trade  is  just — killing; 
Don't  ask  him  to  supper,  he  might  break  your  head, 
ma'am. 

But  he  can't  find  the  bonds  if  he  looks  till  he's  weary, 
And  Fred's  clothes  would  not  fit  such  a  great,  hulk- 
ing fellow, 

So  be  off,  Mister  murderer !  march,  do  you  hear  me? 
Pack  out  in  the  rain;  I'll  not  lend  the  umbrella! 


294        THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

A  PLAIN  MAN'S  DREAM 

Reprinted,  by  permission,  from  "An  American 
Anthology,"  by  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman 

Were  I  transported  to  some  distant  star 
With  fifty  little  children,  girls  and  boys, 

Or  to  some  fabled  land  unknown,  afar, 

Where  never  sound  could  come  of  this  world's  noise; 

Our  world  begun  anew,  as  when  of  yore 

Sad  Adam  fled  from  Eden;  I  alone 
The  sole  custodian  of  all  human  lore,  — 

No  books  to  aid,  all  rules  and  records  gone,  — 

What  could  I  teach  each  tender,  untaught  child? 

How  much  of  this  world's  wisdom  could  I  give 
To  raise  him  from  the  savage,  fierce  and  wild, 

And  train  each  soul  a  worthy  life  to  live? 

Plain  human  speech,  some  simple  laws  of  life, 

A  little  tillage,  household  arts  a  few; 
The  law  of  rectitude  o'ercoming  strife; 

Things  clean  and  sane,  the  simple  and  the  true. 

But  of  Man's  long,  slow  climb  from  Error's  reach,  — 
The  hard-won,  precious  wisdom  of  the  ages,  — 

What  (and,  alas,  how  little!)  could  I  teach 
Which  changes  men  from  savages  to  sages? 

Some  things  I've  learned  I  never  would  impart; 

Somewhat  I'd  tell  of  building,  writing,  preaching; 
Some  hints  I'd  give  on  healing,  science,  art; 

Love  they  would  learn  full  soon  without  my  teaching ! 


A  CHAPTER  OF  VERSE  295 

VARIATIONS  ON  A  THEME  FROM  MACBETH 

Reprinted,  by  permission,  from  "The  Critic" 

"Curses,  not  loud,  but  deep,*' 

I  growl,  with  anguish  bowed, 
When  "poets"  chant,  with  fearsome  sweep  — 

Verses,  not  deep,  but  loud! 

Verses,  not  deep,  but  loud, 

They  print,  nor  silence  keep, 
And  wring  from  men  with  sense  endowed  — 

"Curses,  not  loud,  but  deep!" 


THE  LADDER  OF  FAME 

To  my  friend,  FitzRoy  Carrington 

FitzRoy,  in  a  phitzroyal  phrenzy, 
(While  sneezing  with  the  "influenzy") 
Cried  out: 

"Go  to!  a  Book  I'll  make 
For  poky,  curious  learning's  sake; 
I'll  grub  'mid  tomes  as  dry  as  dust 
And  make  a  good  one  —  though  I  'bust'! 
All  modern  verse  I  shall  eschew; 
The  old  is  good,  but  bad  the  new; 
Verse  should  be  queer  and  all-forgotten,  — 
I'll  resurrect  the  dead  and  rotten! 
I'll  read,  I'll  delve,  I'll  grope,  I'll  mouse  — 
(Consulting  my  judicious  Spouse) ; 
Fine  old  engravings  brought  down  small 


296       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 

Shall  illustrate  the  text  withal. 

I'll  wake  from  sleep  'The  spacious  times 

Of  Great  Elizabeth';  quaint  rhymes 

Of  petty  and  pedantic  James  — 

And  'Mistress'  Eyes'  and  'Lover's  Flames'; 

And  if  plain  folk  can't  understand  'em 

As  masterpieces  they  must  brand  'em ! 

My  preface  shall  be  writ  so  well 

That  it  alone  the  book  must  sell! 

Quaint  type  the  '  utter '  ones  shall  please  — 

With  clumsy  a's  and  o's  and  e's. 

With  antiquarian  zeal  I  '11  '  hustle '  — 

Then  —  sell  my  work  to  R.  H.  Russell! 


"Such  charming  books  must  call  for  more; 
So  up  I'll  rise  and  high  I'll  soar, 
Till  all  my  humble  friends  shall  joy 
That  once  they  knew  —  the  Great  FitzRoy!" 


A  "LIMERICK"  IN  ITALIAN 

My  friend  Cecchino,  of  Bergamo,  having  married  a 
wife  and  bought  a  home,  is  supposed  to  speak  thus: 

Ecco  la  casa  Cecchino, 
E  detta  La  Bergamolino; 

Qui  dimor',  con  la  sposa, 

(Felicita  cosa!) 
E,  ogn'  anno  —  un  bello  bambino! 


A  CHAPTER  OF  VERSE  297 


ON  A  STUBBORN  MECHANIC 

Plague  take  the  wild  Jerseyman,  Walter; 
Not  easy  to  change  or  to  alter,  — 

He  does  his  work  well, 

But  one  secret  I'll  tell,  — 
You  can't  lead  him  round  with  a  halter! 


ON  A  WILLING  YOUNG  SERVITOR 

There  is  a  young  Chauffeur  named  Freddie, 
To  be  useful  he  always  is  ready; 

He's  as  gay  as  a  lark 

And  as  bright  as  a  spark, 
But  his  conduct  is  sober  and  steady. 


A   MARTYR   TO   SCIENCE 

Epitaph  on  Miss  Isabel  Hapgood 
(Who  is  still  alive  and  well) 

Miss  Hapgood's  dead,  —  sad  loss  to  us; 
She  studied  Fungi  poisonous, 

Investigation  filled  her: 
To  prove  the  Mushroom  Book  was  wrong, 
She  ate  the  bad,  with  courage  strong,  — 

The  book  was  right,  —  they  killed  her! 


298        THE   GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 


A  VALENTINE   (1910) 

After  William  Watson's  poem,  "The  Woman  with 
the  Serpent's  Tongue" 

She  is  not  old,  she  is  not  young,  — 

The  woman  with  the  kindly  tongue; 

She  is  not  young,  she  is  not  old,  — 

The  woman  with  the  heart  of  gold! 

She  is  not  lean,  she  is  not  fat,  — 

She's  just  exactly  right  in  that! 

Never  insipid,  never  dull, 

Her  well-stored  mind  with  "brains"  is  full; 

And  if  each  friend  should  pile  one  stone,  — 

(As  Scotsmen  did)  —  just  only  one  — 

To  what  a  height  that  Cairn  would  swell 

From  countless  friends  who  love  her  well! 


SEAMEN  AND  LANDSMEN 

Written  for  a  "Poetry  Bee"  on  an  Atlantic  Steamer 

While  here  we  be  we're  "all  at  sea"; 

We  have  no  work  to  do,  — 
The  world  on  land  may  fall  or  stand 

Unhelped  by  me  or  you. 

But  when  we  land  (a  hopeful  band) 

And  journey  east  or  west, 
The  landsman  then  must  "hustle,"  when 

The  sailorman  may  rest. 


A  CHAPTER  OF  VERSE  299 


TRANSLATION  FROM  THE  FRENCH 

La  vie  est  breve;  Our  life  is  short, 

Un  peu  d'amour,  Love  will  not  stay; 

Tin  peu  de  reve  With  dreams  we  sport 

Et  puis  —  bonjour!  And  then,  good  day! 

La  vie  est  vaine;  Our  life  is  vain, 

Un  peu  d'espoir,  Hope  glimmers  bright; 

Un  peu  de  haine  Then  strife  and  pain 

Et  puis  —  bonsoir!  And  then  —  good  night! 


TRANSLATION  OF  A  FAMOUS  FRENCH 
EPIGRAM 

King  Louis  XTV.,  being  annoyed  at  seeing  numbers 
of  sick  people  going,  or  being  carried,  to  a  holy  well 
which  was  in  one  of  his  parks,  ordered  the  road  to  the 
well  to  be  closed.  Under  the  royal  notice  some  anony- 
mous witty  Frenchman  wrote: 

"C'est  par  le  Roi, — defense  a  Dieu 
De  faire  ses  miracles  en  ce  lieu." 

The  King  forbids  the  God  of  grace 
To  work  his  miracles  in  this  place. 


300       THE  GOLDEN  AGE  OF  ENGRAVING 
THE  FIRST  CHRISTMAS 

WORDS      AND      TUNE      BY      FREDERICK      KEPPEL.      TUNE 
HARMONIZED  BY  A.  H.  MESSITER,  MUS.  DOC. 

Reprinted,  by  permission  of  Messrs.  Duffield  and  Co., 

from  the  book,  "Christmas  in  Art" 
(The  music  is  a  facsimile  of  Dr.  Messiter's  autograph) 


)  '  "< 

1  1  •  7J   ^  —  T  

jd 

1     S 

.    Jl 

< 

1 

j  V'S- 

l—  T 
fl«    i     | 

"V    1     '  —  3  —  L 

-^4 

1    1    • 

)*'    ty 

i 

*/?-•*• 

111 

1 

1 

:!t--!l  —  -1!  —  ¥ 
i  "X  iT   ai 

'          w 

p 

1 

In  loving  worship  bending, 
God's  angels  bright  attending, 

The  Mother  mild 

Adores  the  Child 
Whose  kingdom  hath  no  ending. 

We  hail  thee,  infant  stranger, 
Asleep  in  lowly  manger, 

The  King  of  kings 

His  rescue  brings 
To  human  souls  in  danger. 

O  Christ,  enthroned  in  glory, 
Through  ages  dim  and  hoary; 
God's  message,  then, 
"Good  will  toward  men," 
Is  all  the  world's  best  story. 


A  CHAPTER  OF  VERSE 


301 


Come,  Blest  Spirit! 


Adaptation  from  the  Latin,  by 
Rev.  DAVID  KEPPEL,  Ph.D. 


"  Veni  Sancte  Spiritus  " 
Music  by  FREDERICK  KEPPEL 


itlf.       V-'A 

i  

i^=- 

"3^: 

—  —  i- 

- 

Z*~  1 

'—  1  

I  \ 

i.  Corae.blest  Spir-it!     Let 
A..  Com  -  fort  -  er,  the    dear  « 
5.  Oh,    Thou    Be  -  a  -  tif    • 

-^    1   a     J     J.     J-j  *~-^—  1 
•*-    •«>•                        1       f»?    j^ 
a  beam      From  Thy  heav'nly    ra  -  diance  stream, 
est,  come!  Make  this  fa  -  vored  breast  Thine  home, 
ic  Light!    Pierce  the  lurk-ing-place        of     night, 

n  2  ^  1*"    ^ 

* 

L.         . 

9- 

- 

_4J3* 

• 

fcfrg    F  :^r 

^ 

=^4= 

-F  

^=\ 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1      r 

-i  1  —  i-4-J— 

'U         **     •&-     &         f~^ 
In  -  to     this     dark   soul  of 
Filled,  re-freshed;  if      Thou  ap    - 
Fill    thy    faith  -  ful      fol-lower's 

[bl  £  —  i  —  hf2  —  ^  —  II      . 

mine;    Fa  -  ther    of     the  poor,    ap  -  pear; 
pear    Wea  •  ry       toil    lies  down    to      rest, 
heart;  Vain  is        hu  -  man  might  or      skill; 

M> 

^ 

*F=F= 

-1  1  r 

1- 

1- 

;  h 
Kl     ~ 

f=1 
-+- 

H- 

—  4i 

q>b  h   u   J   i«  —  -^-r^  —  <*»  -  '  ^   ^   ^  *  "  f  *<*  f    ^~" 
^    i    r       «o*  U      >  ^r   *  -*-  r    rJ    '  E?  r 

Giv  -  er      of     good  gifts,  draw    near;  Come,  Thou  Source  of  Light  di  -  vine. 
Sul  -  try  noon  thou  tern  -  per  -    est.      Driest  the  moum-er's  blind-ing     tear. 
On  -  ly    Thine  al  -   might-y          will.     Can    this    bless  -  ed  -  ness   im  -  part. 

*  ! 

4  What  is  sinful,  cleanse  anew; 
Wet  the  arid  waste  with  dew; 

Speak  the  wounded  spirit  whole; 
Bend  the  stubborn  will  to  Thine; 
Melt  this  frozen  heart  of  mine; 

Every  wandering  step  contioL 


5  Grant  to  every  faithful  one, 
Who  relies  on  Thee  alone, 

Thy  best  gift,  the  gift  of  love; 
Grant  a  holy  life  to  spend; 
Grant  salvation  to  the  end; 

And  eternal  joys  above. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A  short  list  of  books  which  would  be  useful  to  every  print-collector 
BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE 

ABOUT  ETCHINGS:  Part  I.,  Notes  by  Sir  Seymour  Haden  on  a  collection 
of  etchings  and  engravings  by  the  great  masters  lent  by  him  to  the  Fine 
Arts  Society  to  illustrate  the  subject  of  etching.  Part  II.,  An  anno- 
tated catalogue  of  the  examples  exhibited.  Illustrated  by  an  original 
etching  by  Seymour  Haden  and  15  facsimiles.  London,  1879. 

AMERICAN  ETCHERS.  By  Mrs.  Schuyler  Van  Rensselaer.  Reprinted  from 
the  Century  Magazine  for  February,  1883,  with  a  brief  additional  chap- 
ter reprinted  in  part  from  the  New  York  Star,  by  Mrs.  Schuyler  Van 
Rensselaer,  to  which  is  added  an  account  of  Meryon  and  his  work  by 
Frederick  Keppel,  with  16  illustrations.  Frederick  Keppel  &  Com- 
pany. New  York,  1886. 

ANDRESEN,  ANDREAS.  Der  Deutsch  Peintre-Graveur.  5  vols.  Leipzig, 
1864. 

ANDRESEN,  ANDREAS.  Handbuch  fttr  Kupferstichsammler.  T.  O.  Wei- 
gel.  Leipzig,  1870. 

APPEL,  ALOYS.  Handbuch  ftir  Kupferstichsammler.  Alexander  Danz. 
Leipzig,  1880. 

BAKER,  W.  S.  American  Engravers  and  their  Works.  Gebbie  and  Bar- 
rie.  Philadelphia,  1875. 

BABTSCH,  ADAM.  Le  Peintre-Graveur.  21  vols.  Vienna,  1803-1821.  (Sup- 
plement by  R.  Weigel.  Leipzig,  1843.) 

BAUDICOUR,  PROSPER  DE.  Le  Peintre-Graveur  Francais  continue.  (Sup- 
plements Robert-Dumesnil  on  French  Engravers  of  the  XVIII  Century.) 
2  vols.  Paris,  1859-1861. 

BERALDI,  HENRI.  Les  Graveurs  du  XIXe  Siecle.  12  vols.  L.  Conquet. 
Paris,  1885-1892. 

BINTON,  LAURENCE.  Dutch  Etchers  of  the  Seventeenth  Century.  (Illus- 
trated.) The  Portfolio  (No.  21),  Macmillan  and  Co.  New  York, 
September,  1895. 

BOURCARD,  GUBTAVE.  Les  Etampes  du  XVIIIe  Siecle.  Ecole  francaise. 
E.  Dentu.  Paris,  1885. 

BOURCARD,  GUSTAVE.  A  Travers  Cinq  Siecles  de  Gravures.  (1350-1903.) 
Georges  Rapilly.  Paris,  1903. 

BOURCARD,  GUSTAVE.  Graveurs  et  Gravures.  Essai  de  Bibliographic. 
(1540-1910.)  H.  Floury.  Paris,  1910. 

303 


304  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

BRYAN,  MICHAEL.  Dictionary  of  Painters  and  Engravers.  Edited  by 
R.  E.  Graves  and  Sir  Walter  Armstrong,  (Illustrated.)  2  vols. 
1899.  Also  edited  by  George  C.  Williamson,  etc.  (Illustrated.)  5  vols. 
George  Bell  and  Sons.  London,  1903-1905. 

CHALONER-SMITH,  JOHN.  British  Mezzotinto  Portraits.  Being  a  descrip- 
tive catalogue  of  the  engravings  from  the  introduction  of  the  art  to  the 
early  part  of  the  (19th)  century;  arranged  according  to  the  engravers. 
5  vols.  H.  Sotheran  &  Co.  London,  1878-83. 

CHAPIN,  WILLIS  O.  Masters  and  Masterpieces  of  Engraving.  (Illus- 
trated.) Harper  and  Brothers.  New  York,  1894. 

COLVIN,  SIDNEY.  Early  Engraving  and  Engravers  in  England  (1545- 
1695.)  With  a  list  of  works  of  engravers,  1545-1650,  by  A.  M.  Hind. 
(Illustrated.)  London,  1905. 

CURTIS,  ATHERTON.  Some  Masters  of  Lithography.  (Illustrated.)  D. 
Appleton  &  Co.  1897. 

DELABORDE,  HENRI.  Engraving.  Its  origin,  processes,  and  history. 
Translated  by  R.  A.  M.  Stevenson.  With  an  additional  chapter  on 
English  engraving  by  William  Walker.  (Illustrated.)  Cassell  & 
Company.  Limited.  London,  1886. 

DELTEIL,  LOYB.  Le  Peintre,  Graveur  Illustre.  Illustrated.  (XIXe  et  XXe 
Siecles.)  Paris,  1906-1910. 

Vol.  I.    J.  F.  Millet,  Th.  Rouss  au,  Jules  Dupre,  J.  B.  Jongki-d. 
Vol.  II.     Charles  Meryon. 
Vol.  III.     Ingres  and  Delacroix. 
Vol.  IV.     Anders  Zorn. 
Vol.  V.     Corot. 

DILKE,  LADY.  French  Engravers  and  Draughtsmen  of  the  XVIII  Century. 
(Illustrated.)  George  Bell  &  Sons.  London,  1902. 

DUPLESSIS,  GEORGES.     Histoire  de  la  Gravure  en  France.     Paris,  1861. 

DUPLESSIS,  GEORGES.     De  la  Gravure  du  Portrait  en  France.    Paris,  1875. 

DUPLESSIS,  GEORGES.  The  Wonders  of  Engraving.  (Illustrated.)  Samp- 
son Low,  Son,  and  Marston.  London,  1871. 

DUTUIT,  EUGENE.  Manuel  de  1'Amateur  d'Estampes.  8  vols.  (Illus- 
trated.) Emile  Levy.  Paris. 

EVELYN,  JOHN.  Sculptura,  or  the  History  and  Art  of  Chalcography  and 
Engraving  on  Copper.  .  .  .  To  which  is  annexed  a  new  manner  of 
engraving  or  mezzotinto  communicated  by  his  Highness  Prince  Rupert, 
London,  1662.  Reprinted,  with  the  unpublished  Second  Part,  Tudor 
and  Stuart  Library,  The  Clarendon  Press.  Oxford,  1906. 

FAGAN,  Louis.  Collectors'  Marks.  Field  and  Tuer.  London.  Scrib- 
ner  and  Welford.  New  York,  1883. 

FOUR  MASTERS  OF  ETCHING,  by  Frederick  Wedmore.  With  original 
etchings  by  Haden,  Jacquemart,  Whistler,  and  Legros.  Fine  Art 
Society.  London,  1883. 

HAMERTON,  PHILIP  GILBERT.     The  Graphic  Arts.     A  treatise  on  the  van- 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  305 

eties  of  drawing,  painting,  and  engraving  in  comparison  with  each  other 
and  with  nature.     London,  1882. 

Etching  and  Etchers.    (Illustrated.)  London,  1868.    Boston.    Roberts 
Brothers  (sixth  edition),  1892. 

HIND,  A.  M.  A  Short  History  of  Engraving  and  Etching.  With  full  bibli- 
ography, classified  list,  and  index  of  engravers.  (Illustrated.)  Archi- 
bald Constable  &  Co.  Ltd.  London.  Houghton,  Mifflin  Company. 
Boston  and  New  York,  1908. 

HITCHCOCK,  J.  R.  W.  Etching  in  America.  With  lists  of  American  etchers 
and  notable  collections  of  prints.  (With  an  etching.)  White,  Stokes 
and  Allen.  New  York,  1886. 

HYMANS,  HENRI.  Histoire  de  la  Gravure  dans  FEcole  de  Rubens.  (Illus- 
trated.) Brussels,  1879. 

JACKSON,  JOHN,  AND  CHATTO,  W.  A.  A  Treatise  on  Wood  Engraving. 
(Illustrated.)  Second  edition.  Henry  G.  Bohn.  London,  1866. 

KEPPEL,  FREDERICK.  The  Golden  Age  of  Engraving.  An  introductory 
essay  on  the  old  engravers.  (13  illustrations.)  Fourth  edition.  Fred- 
erick Keppel  &  Co.  New  York,  1893. 

KHISTELLER,  P.  Kupferstich  und  Holzschnitt  in  vier  Jahrhunderten. 
Berlin,  1905. 

LALANNE,  MAXIME.  A  Treatise  on  Etching.  Text  and  plates  by  M.  La- 
lanne:  translated  from  the  second  French  edition  by  S.  R.  Koehler, 
with  an  introductory  chapter  and  notes  by  the  translator.  (Illustrated.) 
Boston,  1880. 

LE  BLANC,  CHARLES.  Manuel  de  1'Amateur  d'Estampes.  2  vols.  Paris, 
1854-1859. 

LEVIS,  HOWARD  C.  A  Bibliography  of  American  Books  relating  to  Print 
and  the  Art  and  History  of  Engraving.  London,  1910. 

LIPPMAN,  FRIEDRICH.  Engraving  and  Etching.  Translated  from  the  third 
German  edition,  revised  by  Dr.  Max  Lehrs,  by  Martin  Hardie.  (Illus- 
trated.) Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  New  York,  1906. 

LITHOGRAPHY.  Some  Masters  of  Lithography.  By  Atherton  Curtis. 
D.  Appleton  &  Co.  New  York,  1897. 

LITHOGRAPHY  AND  LITHOGRAPHERS.  Some  chapters  in  the  history  of  the 
art,  with  technical  remarks  and  suggestions.  By  Elizabeth  Robins 
and  Joseph  Pennell.  (Illustrated.)  London,  1898. 

MABERLY,  J.  The  Print  Collector.  An  introduction  to  the  knowledge 
necessary  for  forming  a  collection  of  ancient  prints.  Edited  with  notes, 
an  account  of  contemporary  etching  and  etchers,  and  a  bibliography 
of  engraving,  by  Robert  Hoe,  Jr.  (Illustrated.)  Dodd,  Mead  & 
Company  and  Frederick  Keppel.  New  York,  1880. 

MODERN  ETCHING  AND  ENGRAVING.  The  Studio.  Summer  Number. 
(Illustrated.)  London,  1902. 

NEVILL,  RALPH.  French  Prints  of  the  Eighteenth  Century.  (Illustrated.) 
Macmillan  &  Co.  London,  1908. 


306  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

PASSAVANT,  J.  D.  Le  Peintre-Graveur.  (Supplement  to  Bartsch  on  15th 
and  16th  century  engravers.)  6  vols.  Leipzig,  1860-1864. 

PENNELL,  JOSEPH.  Pen  Drawing  and  Pen  Draughtsmen.  A  study  of 
the  art  to-day  with  technical  suggestions.  (Illustrated.)  Macmillan 
&  Company.  London,  1897. 

PENNELL,  JOSEPH  AND  ELIZABETH  ROBINS.  Lithography  and  Lithographers. 
Some  chapters  in  the  history  of  the  art,  with  technical  remarks  and 
suggestions.  (Illustrated.)  London,  1898. 

PORTALIS,  BABON  ROGER.  Les  Graveurs  du  XVTIIe  Siecle.  3  vols.  1880- 
1882. 

RoBERT-DuMESNiL,  A.  P.  F.  Le  Pemtre-Graveur  Francais.  (Supple- 
ments Bartsch,  on  French  engravers.)  11  vols.  Paris,  1835-1871. 
Also  PROSPER  DE  BAUDICOUB.  Le  Peintre-Graveur  Francais  continued 
(Eighteenth  century  engravers.)  2  vols.  Paris,  1859-1861. 

SALAMAN,  MALCOLM  C.  The  Old  Engravers  of  England  in  their  Relation 
to  Contemporary  Life  and  Art  (1540-1800.)  (Illustrated.)  Cassell 
and  Company,  Limited.  London.  J.  P.  Lippincott  Company.  Phil- 
adelphia, 1907. 

SINGER,  HANS  WOLFGANG.  Die  Kleinmeister.  (Illustrated.)  Welhagen 
&  Klasing.  Leipzig,  1908. 

SUMNER,  CHARLES.  The  Best  Portraits  in  Engraving.  (Illustrated.) 
Frederick  Keppel  &  Co.  New  York. 

THIES,  Louis.  Catalogue  of  the  collection  of  engravings  bequeathed 
to  Harvard  College  by  Francis  Galley  Gray.  Cambridge,  Mass.,  1869. 

TIFFIN,  WALTER  F.  Gossip  about  Portraits.  Principally  engraved  por- 
traits. H.  G.  Bohn.  London,  1866. 

VAN  RENSSELAER,  MRS.  SCHUYLER.  American  Etchers.  (Illustrated.) 
Frederick  Keppel  &  Co.  New  York,  1886. 

WEDMORE,  FREDERICK.  Etching  in  England.  (Illustrated.)  George  Bell 
and  Sons.  London,  1895. 

Fine  Prints.     Longmans,  Green  and  Company.     New  York,  1897. 
Four    Masters    of    Etching.     (With   original    etchings    by   Haden, 
Jacquemart,  Whistler,  and  Legros.)     Fine  Arts  Society.     London,  1883. 

WEITENKAMPF,  FRANK.  How  to  Appreciate  Prints.  (Illustrated.)  Moffat, 
Yard  and  Co.  New  York,  1908. 

WHITMAN,  ALFRED.  The  Masters  of  Mezzotint.  The  men  and  their  work. 
(Illustrated.)  George  Bell  &  Sons.  London,  1898. 

The   Print-Collector's   Handbook.      (Illustrated.)      George   Bell   & 
Sons.     London,  1901. 

WILLSHIRE,  WILLIAM  HUGHES.  An  Introduction  to  the  Study  and  Collec- 
tion of  Ancient  Prints.  Ellis  and  White.  London,  1874. 

MONOGRAPHS  UPON  INDIVIDUAL  ARTISTS 

ALDEGBEVER,  HEINRICH  (1502-1555.)  Heinrich  Aldegrever  Goldschmidt, 
Maler,  Kupferstecher.  Dr.  F.  J.  Gehrken,  Munster,  1841. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  307 

ALTDORFEB,  ALBRECHT  (1480-1538).  Albrecht  Altdorfer.  T.  Sturge 
Moore.  Edited  by  Laurence  Binyon.  (Illustrated.)  London,  1900. 

BARTOLOZzi,  FRANCESCO  (1728-1813).  Bartolozzi  and  his  Works.  Andrew 
W.  Tuer.  2  vols.  (Illustrated.)  Field  and  Tuer.  London.  Scrib- 
ner  and  Welford.  New  York,  1882. 

BEHAM,  BARTHEL  (1502-1549),  HANS  SEBALD  (1500-1550).  Barthel  and 
Beham,  Hans  Sebald.  A.  Rosenberg.  (Illustrated.)  Leipzig,  1875. 

Catalogue  of  the  Prints  and  Etchings  of — W.  J.  Loftie.  London, 
1877. 

BLAKE,  WILLIAM  (1757-1827).  William  Blake.  Painter  and  Poet.  Rich- 
ard Garrett,  LL.D.  (Illustrated.)  The  Portfolio.  Macmillan  &  Co. 
New  York,  1895. 

BRACQUEMOND,  FELIX  (1833 ).    Catalogue  des  oeuvres  exposees  de 

Bracquemond    au    Musee    du    Luxembourg,    (February-July,    1897.) 
Paris,  1897. 

BUHOT,  FELIX  (1847-1898).  Catalogue  descriptif  de  son  oeuvre  grav6, 
avec  une  preface  d'Arsene  Alexandre  et  un  portrait  de  1'artiste,  par 
Francois  Courboin.  G.  Bourcard,  H.  Foury.  Paris,  1899. 

Felix  Buhot.  Etude  et  catalogue  de  1'oeuvre  de  cet  artiste  ex- 
pose au  Musee  national  du  Luxembourg.  (Illustrated.)  Leonce 
Benedite  (Les  artistes  de  tous  les  temps.)  Paris,  N.  D. 

CALLOT,  JACQUES  (1592-1635).  Recherches  sur  la  vie  et  les  ouvrages  de 
Jacques  Callot,  Edouard  Meaume.  2  vols.  Jules  Renouard.  Paris, 
1860. 

A  catalogue  and  description  of  the  whole  of  the  works  of  the  cele- 
brated Callot,  consisting  of  1450  pieces  attributed  to  him.  J.  H.  Green.' 
London,  1804. 

CAMERON,  D.  Y.  (1865 ).  Cameron's  Etchings:  A  Study  and  a  Cata- 
logue. Frederick  Wedmore.  R.  Gutekunst.  London,  1903. 

Etchings  by  D.  Y.  Cameron  and  a  catalogue  of  his  etched  work. 
With  an  introductory  essay  by  Frank  Rinder.  (Illustrated.)  Otto 
Schulz  and  Company.  Edinburgh,  1908. 

CHAUVEL,   THEOPHILE   (1831 ).     Catalogue  raisonne  de   son   ceuvre 

grave   et   lithographic,   avec   eaux-fortes   originates   et   reproductions. 
(Illustrated.)     Loys  Delteil.     Paris,  1900. 

CLAUDE  LORRAIN  (Claude  Gellee)  (1600-1682).  Claude  Lorrain.  Painter 
and  Etcher.  George  Grahame.  (Illustrated.)  The  Portfolio,  March, 
1895.  Macmillan  &  Co.  New  York,  1895. 

Sa  vie  et  ses  ceuvres  par  Madame  Mark  Pattison.  Suivi  d'un  cata- 
logue de  ses  oeuvres.  (Illustrated.)  Paris,  1884. 

COHOT,  JEAN  BAPTISTS  CAMIL.LE  (1796-1875).  L'ceuvre  de  Corot  par 
Alfred  Robaut.  Catalogue  raisonnS  et  illustre,  precedS  de  1'histoire  de 
Corot  et  de  ses  ceuvres.  (Illustrated.)  4  vola.  E.  Moreau-Nelaton. 
H.  Floury.  Paris,  1905. 

Corot  and   Millet.     With  critical  essays  by  Gustave  Geffroy  and 


308  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Arsene  Alexandra.     (Illustrated.)     The  Studio.    John   Lane.     London 
and  New  York,  1903. 

Le  Peintre-Graveur  Illustre".  Loys  Delteil.  (Illustrated.)  Vol.  V. 
Paris,  1910. 

COUSINS,  SAMUEL  (1801-1887).  A  Memoir.  Catalogue  of  portraits  and 
subjects  engraved  by  him  and  an  index  to  painters  and  subjects. 
(Illustrated.)  Alfred  Whitman.  George  Bell  and  Sons.  London, 
1904. 

Catalogue  of  the  complete  works  of  Samuel  Cousins  (1801-1887). 
Exhibited  at  Vicars  Bros.     London,  November,  1903. 
DAUBIGNY,  CHARLES  FRA^OIS  (1817-1878).     C.  Daubigny  et  son  oeuvre 

gravg.     Frederic  Henriet.     (Illustrated.)     A.  LeVy.     Paris,  1875. 
DAULLE,  JEAN  (1707-1763).     Catalogue  raisonnS  de  Foauvre  grave  de  Jean 

Daulle.     E.  Delignieres.     Paris,  1873. 

DAUMIER,  HONORE  (1808-1879).    Daumier  and  Gavarni.    With  critical 
and  biographical  notes  by  Henri  Frantz  and  Octave  Uzanne.     (Illus- 
trated.)    The  Studio.     John  Lane.     London  and  New  York,  1904. 
DELACROIX,   EUGENE   (1798-1863).     Ingres   and   Delacroix.     Le   Peintre- 
Graveur  Illustre.     Vol.  III.     (Illustrated.)     Loys  Delteil.     Paris,  1908. 
DHEVET,    PIERRE    (1663-1738),    PIERRE-!MBERT    (1769-1739),    CLAUDE 
1710-1783).     Les  Drevets.     (Pierre,  Pierre-Imbert,  et  Claude.)     Cata- 
logue raisonne  de  leur  ceuvre.     Ambroise  Fermin-Didot.     Paris,  1876. 
DUPRE,  JULES  (1811-1889).     J.  F.  Millet,  Th.  Rousseau,  Jules    Dupre, 
J.  B.  Jongkind.     Le  Peintre-Graveur  Illustre.     Vol.  L.     (Illustrated.) 
Loys  Delteil.     Paris,  1906. 

DURER,  ALBRECHT  (1471-1528).  Albrecht  Diirer's  Kupferstiche,  Radi- 
rungen,  Holzschnitte  und  Zeichnungen. 

Oberbaurath  B.  Hausmann  (Invaluable  for  the  plates  showing  the 
"water  marks"  in  the  papers  used  by  Dilrer).  Hanover,  1861. 

Das  Leben  und  die  Werke  Albrecht  Diirer's.  Joseph  Heller. 
Leipsic,  1831. 

Diirer's  Kupferstiche  und  Holzschnitt.  R.  V.  Retberg.  Theodor 
Ackermann.  Munich,  1871. 

A  chronological  catalogue  of  the  engravings,  dry-points,  and 
etchings  of  Albert  Diirer  as  exhibited  at  the  Grolier  Club.  Compiled 
by  S.  R.  Koehler.  (7  Illustrations.)  The  Grolier  Club  of  New  York, 
1897. 

Exhibition  of  Albert  Diirer's  engravings,  etchings,  and  dry-points 
and  of  most  of  the  wood-cuts  executed  from  his  designs.  (Novem- 
ber 15,  1888  to  January  15,  1889.)  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston. 
(Introduction  and  valuable  notes  by  S.  R.  Koehler.)  Boston,  1888. 

Albert  Diirer.  VIDE  Adam  Bartsch.  Le  Peintre-Graveur.  Vol. 
VII,  pp.  5-197. 

Albert  Diirer.  VIDE  J.  D.  Passavant.  Le  Peintre-Graveur.  Vol. 
Ill,  pp.  144-227. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  309 

Albert  Diirer.  His  Life  and  Works.  Moriz  Thausing.  Translated 
from  the  German.  Edited  by  Fred.  A.  Eaton,  M.  A.  (2  vols.  Illus- 
trated.) John  Murray.  London,  1882. 

Albert  Diirer.  His  Life  and  Works.  William  B.  Scott.  (Illustrated.) 
Longmans,  Green  and  Co.  London,  1869. 

The  Engravings  of  Albrecht  Diirer.  Lionel  Cust.  (Illustrated.) 
The  Portfolio.  November,  1894.  Macmillan  &  Co.  New  York, 
1894. 

Albert  Diirer.  T.  Sturge  Moore.  (Illustrated.)  Duckworth  and 
Co.  London.  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  New  York,  1905. 

EVERDINGEN  ALLART  VAN  (1621-1675).  Allart  van  Everdingen.  Cata- 
logue raisonne  de  toutes  les  estampes  qui  forment  son  oeuvre  grave". 
W.  Drugulin.  Leipzig,  1873. 

FAITHORNE,  WILLIAM  (1616-1691).  A  descriptive  catalogue  of  the  engraved 
works  of  Faithorne.  Louis  Fagan,  Bernard  Quaritch.  London,  1888. 

FANTIN-LATOUR,  HENRI  (1836-1904).  Fantin-Latour.  Etude  suivie  du 
catalogue  de  son  oeuvre.  Germain  Hediard.  (With  two  original 
lithographs.)  Edmond  Sagot.  Paris,  1892. 

Les   Lithographies   Nouvelles   de   Fantin   Latour.     Germain   Hediard. 
(With  an  original  lithograph.)     Edmond  Sagot.     Paris,  1899. 

Catalogue  de  I'o3uvre  lithographique  du  maitre  precede  d'une  £tude 
par  Germain  Hediard  et  d'une  notice  sur  G.  Hediard,  par  L.  Benedite. 
Nouvelle  edition  revue,  corrigee  et  completee.  Librarie  de  1'art  ancien 
et  moderne.  Paris,  1906. 

FORTUNY,  MARIANO  (1836-1874).  Fortuny,  sa  vie,  son  oauvre  sa  corres- 
pondence. (Illustrated.)  Auguste  Aubry.  Paris,  1875. 

GAILLARD,  FERDINAND  (1834-1887  .  Ferdinand  Gaillard,  maitre-graveur. 
C.  de  Beaulieu.  Blond  and  Barral.  Paris,  1888. 

GAVARNI  (GUILLAUME  SULPICE  CHEVALIER)  (1804-1866).  Daumier  and 
Gavarni.  With  critical  and  biographical  notes  by  Henri  Frantz  and 
Octave  Uzanne.  (Illustrated.)  The  Studio.  John  Lane.  London 
and  New  York,  1904. 

GOTA,  FRANCISCO  DE  (1746-1828).  Katalog  seines  graphischen  werkes 
Julius  Hofmann.  Illustrated. 

Gesellschaft  fiir  vervielfaltigende  Kunst.     Vienna,  1907. 
Etude  biographique  et  critique  suivie  des  catalogues  complete,  publ. 
pour  la  premiere  fois  de  I'reuvre  peint  et  dessine,  de  1'ceuvre  grav6  et 
lithographic.     (Illustrated.)     P.  Lafond.     Paris,  1902. 

GOTA.  W.  Rothensten.  "The  Artistic  Library,"  No.  4.  (Illustrated.) 
London,  1900. 

GRAVESANDE,  CHARLES  STORM  VAN'S  (1841 ).  Catalogue  of  etch- 
ings and  dry-points  by  Charles  Storm  van's  Gravesande.  (Exhibited 
at  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston,  January  and  February,  1887.) 
Richard  A.  Rice.  Boston,  1887. 

HADEN,  SIR  FRANCIS  SEYMOUR  (1818-1910).    A  descriptive  catalogue  of 


310  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

the  etched  work  of  Francis  Seymour  Haden.     Sir  William  Richard 

Drake,  F.  S.  A.     Macmillan  &  Co.      London,  1880. 

A  supplement  to  Sir  William  Drake's  catalogue  of  the  etched  work 

of   Sir   Francis   Seymour  Haden,   P.  R.  E.      H.  Nazeby  Harrington. 

Macmillan  &  Co.     London,  1903. 

Four  Masters  of  Etching.     Frederick  Wedmore.     (With  an  original 

etching.)     Fine  Art  Society.     London,  1883. 
HAIG,  AXEL  HERMAN   (1835 ).     Axel  Herman  Haig  and  his  Work. 

E.  A.   Armstrong.        (Illustrated.)     The   Fine   Art   Society,   Limited. 

London,  1905. 
HOLLAR,     WENZEL     (1607-1677).     Beschreibendes     Verzeichniss     Seiner 

Kupferstiche.     Gustave  Parthey.     Berlin,  1853. 
HOUBRAKEN,  JACOBUS   (1698-1780).     Jacobus  Houbraken  et  son  oeuvre. 

A.  ver  Huell.     P.  Gonda  Quint.     Arnhem,  1875. 
JACQUE,  CHARLES  (1813-1894).     L'ceuvre  de  Ch.  Jacque.     Catalogue  de 

ses  daux-fortes  et  pointes  seches.     J.  J.  Guiffrey.     (With  an  original 

etching.)     Paris,  1866. 

Nouvelles   eaux-fortes  et   pointes    seches   de   Ch.   Jacque.     Paris, 

1884. 
JACQUEMART,  JULES  (1837-1880).     Four  Masters  of  Etching.     Frederick 

Wedmore.     (With  an  original  etching.)     The  Fine  Art  Society.     Lon- 
don, 1883. 

L'ceuvre  de  Jules  Jacquemart.     Louis  Gonse.     (Illustrated.)     Paris, 

1876. 
JONGKIND,  JOHANN  BARTHOLD  (1819-1891).    Le  Peintre-Graveur  Dlustre. 

Vol.  I.     (Illustrated.)     Loys  Delteil.     Paris,  1906. 
LALANNE,  MAXIME  (1827-1886).     Maxime  Lalanne,  Peintre,  dessinateur, 

aquafortiste.     Ch.  Marionneau.     Bordeaux,  1886. 
LEGROS,  ALPHONSE  (1837 ).     Catalogue  raisonne  de  1'ceuvre  grave  et 

lithographic  de   M.   Alphonse    Legros    (1855-1877).     A.   P.   Malassis 

and  A.  W.  Thibaudeau.     J.  Baur.     Paris,  1877. 

Four  Masters  of  Etching.     Frederick  Wedmore.     (With  an  original 

dry-point.)     The  Fine  Art  Society.     London,  1883. 

MANTEGNA,   ANDREA   (1431-1506).    Andrea  Mantegna.     By  Paul   Kris- 
teller.     Translated  by  S.  Arthur  Strong.      (188  Illustrations.)     Long- 
man's, Green  &  Co.     London  and  New  York,  1901. 
MELLAN,  CLAUDE  (1598-1688).     Catalogue  raisonne  de  I'ceuvre  de  Claude 

Mellan  d' Abbeville  par  Anatole  de  Montaiglon.     Abbeville,  1856. 
MERTON,  CHARLES  (1821-1868).     Charles  Meryon,  Sailor,  Engraver,  and 

Etcher.     A  memoir  and  complete  descriptive  catalogue  of  his  works, 

translated  from  the  French  of  Philip  Burty  by  Marcus  B.  Huish.     The 

Fine  Art  Society.     London,  1879. 

Meryon  and  Meryon's  Paris.     With  a  descriptive  catalogue  of  the 

artist's    work.      Frederick   Wedmore.      (Second   edition.)      Deprez  & 

Gutekunst.     London,  1892. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  311 

Le  Peintre-Graveur  Illustre.  (Illustrated.)  Loys  Delteil.  Vol.  II. 
Paris,  1907. 

Etchings  of  Charles  Meryon.  (49  Reproductions,  with  an  essay  by 
Hugh  Stokes.)  George  Newnes,  Limited.  London.  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons.  New  York,  N.  D. 

MILLET,  JEAN-FRANCIS  (1814-1875).  The  Etchings  and  Other  Prints  of 
Jean-Francois  Millet,  by  Alfred  Lebmn.  Translated  from  the  French  by 
Frederick  Keppel,  with  additional  notes  and  a  sketch  of  the  artist's  life. 
(Illustrated.)  Frederick  Keppel  &  Co.  New  York,  1887. 

Le  Peintre-Graveur  Illustre.  (Illustrated.)  Loys  Delteil.  Vol.  I. 
Paris,  1906. 

Corot  and  Millet.  With  critical  essays  by  Gustave  Geffrey  and 
Arsene  Alexandre.  (Illustrated.)  The  Studio.  John  Lane.  London 
and  New  York,  1903. 

MORGHEX,  RAPHAEL  (1758-1833).  Raphael  Morghen's  Engraved  Works. 
Being  a  descriptive  catalogue  of  all  the  engravings  of  this  master.  Bio- 
graphical and  other  notes,  with  a  life  of  the  engraver.  Frederic  Robert 
Halsey.  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  New  York,  1885. 

Opere  d'Intaglio  del  Cav.  Raffaello  Morghen  raccolte  ed  illustrate 
da  Niccolo  Palmerini.     (Third  edition.)     Florence,  18£4. 
PALMER,  SAMUEL   (1805-1881).    Samuel  Palmer.    A  memoir  by  A.  H. 
Palmer,  also  a  catalogue  of  his  works.     (Illustrated.)     The  Fine  Art 
Society,  Limited.     London,  1882. 

PARRISH,   STEPHEN    (1846 ).     A   catalogue   of   etchings   by   Stephen 

Parrish  (1879-1883),  with  descriptions  of  the  plates  and  ten  etchings 
made  for  this  work  —  nine  of  which  are  reduced  copies  of  plates  men- 
tioned in  the  text.  Fifty  copies  only. 

PLATT,  CHARLES  A.  (1861 ).    A  descriptive  catalogue  of  the  etched 

work  of  Platt.    Richard  A.  Rice.    New  York,  1889. 

REMBRANDT  VAN  RYN  (1606-1669).  Catalogue  raisonne  de  toutes  les 
estampes  qui  fonnent  1'ceuvre  de  Rembrandt  et  ceux  de  ses  principaux 
imitateurs.  Adam  Bartsch.  (2  vols.)  Alexander  Danz.  Leipzig,  1880. 

L'oeuvre  complet  de  Rembrandt.  Charles  Blanc.  2  vols.  (Illus- 
trated.) L.  Guerin  et  Cie.  Paris,  1873. 

L'oeuvre  complet  de  Rembrandt.  Eugene  Dutuit.  2  vols.  Supple- 
ment and  plates.  Paris,  1883. 

A  descriptive  catalogue  of  the  etched  work  of  Rembrandt  van 
Ryn,  Charles  Henry  Middleton.  John  Murray.  London,  1878. 

L'oeuvre  grav6  de  Rembrandt.  Reproduction  des  planches  originales 
dans  tous  leurs  etats  successifs.  1000  phototypies  sans  retouches.  Avec 
un  catalogue  raisonne  par  Dmitri  Rovinski.  St.  Petersburg,  1890. 

"Kritisches  verzeichnis  der  Radierungen  Rembrandt.  W.  Von 
Seidlitz.  Leipzig,  1895. 

Rembrandt.  Sa  vie  et  ses  oeuvres.  C.  Vosmaer.  (2d  edition.) 
The  Hague,  1897. 


312  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The  Etched  Work  of  Rembrandt.  A  monograph.  Francis  Sey- 
mour Haden.  F.  R.  C.  S.  (With  plates.)  Macmillan  &  Co.  London, 
1879. 

Rembrandt.  His  Life,  his  Work,  and  his  Time,  by  Emile  Michel. 
Translated  by  Florence  Simmonds.  Edited  by  Frederick  Wedmore. 
2  vols.  (317  Illustrations.)  William  Heinemann.  London,  1895. 

The  Etchings  of  Rembrandt.  P.  G.  Hamerton.  (Illustrated.)  The 
Portfolio.  Macmillan  &  Co.  New  York,  1894. 

Rembrandt.  By  H.  Knackfuss.  Translated  by  Campbell  Dodg- 
son.  (Illustrated.)  Lemcke  &  Buechner.  New  York,  1899. 

ROUSSEAU,  THEODOR  (1812-1867).  Le  Peintre-Graveur  Illustre.  Loys 
Delteil.  Vol.  I.  Paris,  1906. 

SCHMIDT,  GEORG  FRIEDRICH  (1712-1775).  Catalogue  raisonne  de  I'ceuvre 
de  feu  George  Frederic  Schmidt,  Graveur  du  Roi  de  Prusse.  Anonymous, 
London,  1789. 

SHARP,  WILLIAM  (1749-1824).  William  Sharp,  Engraver.  With  a  descrip- 
tive catalogue  of  his  works.  W.  S.  Baker.  Gebbie  and  Barrie.  Phila- 
delphia, 1875. 

STRANG,  WILLIAM  (1859 ).     Etchings  of  William  Strang,  A.R.A.     (49 

Reproductions,  with  an  essay  by  Frank  Newbolt.)     George  Newnes, 
Limited.     London.     Charles  Scribner's  Sons.     New  York,  N.  D. 

William  Strang.  Catalogue  of  his  etched  work,  with  introductory 
essay,  by  Laurence  Binyon.  Glasgow,  1908. 

STRANGE,  SIR  ROBERT  (1721-1792).  Catalogue  de  I'ceuvre  de  Robert 
Strange,  graveur  avec  une  notice  biographique.  Charles  Le  Blanc. 
Rudolph  Weigel.  Leipzig,  1848. 

SUTDERHOEF,  JONAS  (1610-1686).  Jonas  Suyderhoef,  son  ceuvre  grave, 
classe  et  decrit.  J.  J.  Wussin.  Translated  from  the  German,  anno- 
tated and  enlarged  by  H.  Hymans.  Brussels,  1863. 

TURNER,  JOSEPH  MALLORD  WILLIAM  (1775-1851).  The  Genius  of  J.  M. 
W.  Turner,  R.  A.  The  Studio.  Special  Winter  Number.  (Illustrated.) 
John  Lane.  London  and  New  York,  1903. 

Turner's  Liber  Studiorum.  A  description  and  a  catalogue.  W.  J. 
Rawlinson.  Macmillan  and  Co.  London,  1878. 

Notes  and  memoranda  respecting  the  Liber  Studiorum  of  J.  M.  W. 
Turner,  R.  A.  Written  and  collected  by  the  late  John  Pye.  .  .  . 
Edited  by  John  Lewis  Roget.  John  van  Voorst.  London,  1879. 

Handbook  to  Exhibition  of  Line  Engravings  after  Water  Color 
Drawings  by  J.  M.  W.  Turner.  Introduction  and  notes  by  Francis 
Bullard.  Harvard  University.  Cambridge,  1906. 

VAN  DTCK,  SIR  ANTHONY  (1599-1641).    L'Iconographie  d'Antoine  Van 
Dyck  d'apres  les  recherches  de  H.  Weber  par  le  Dr.  Fr.  Wibiral  avec 
six  planches  representant  de  vieux  filigranes.     Alexander  Danz.     Leip- 
zig, 1877. 
Etchings  of  Van  Dyck.     (34  Reproductions,  with  an  essay  by  Frank 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  313 

Newbolt.)  George  Newnes,  Limited.  London.  Charles  Scribner's 
Sons.  New  York,  N.  D. 

Etchings  by  Van  Dyck.  With  23  facsimiles  of  the  first  states.  By 
Walter  S.  Sparrow,  with  an  introduction  by  H.  Singer.  Hodder  and 
Stoughton.  London,  1905. 

Van  Dyck.  H.  Knackfuss.  Translated  by  Campbell  Dodgson. 
(Illustrated.)  Lemcke  &  Buechner.  New  York,  1899. 

VAN  MUYDEN,  EVEBT  (1853 ).     Catalogue  of  the  etched  work  of  Evert 

Van  Muyden  by  Atherton  Curtis,  with  a  portrait  of  the  artist  and  ten 
head-pieces  etched  expressly  for  the  catalogue,  and  one  unpublished 
plate.  Frederick  Keppel  &  Co.  New  York,  1894. 

VAN  OSTADE,  ADRIAF.N*  (1610-1685).  Catalogue  raisonne  de  toutes  les 
estampes  qui  forment  1'ceuvre  grave  d'Adrien  van  Ostade.  L.  E. 
Faucheux.  Paris,  1862. 

VISSCHER,  COBNELJS  (1629?-1658?).  A  catalogue  of  the  works  of  Cornelius 
Visscher.  William  Smith.  (Reprinted  from  the  Fine  Arts  Quarterly 
Review.)  John  Childs  and  Son.  Bungay,  1864. 

WHISTLER,  JAMES  ABBOTT  McNsiLL  (1834-1903).  Whistler's  Etchings. 
A  study  and  a  catalogue.  Frederick  Wedmore.  (Second  edition.) 
P.  &  D.  Colnaghi  &  Co.  London,  1899. 

A  descriptive  catalogue  of  the  etchings  and  dry-points  of  James 
Abbott  McNeill  Whistler.  Howard  Mansfield.  The  Caxton  Club. 
Chicago,  1909. 

The  Etched  Work  of  Whistler,  illustrated  by  reproductions  in  collo- 
type of  the  different  states  of  the  plates,  compiled,  arranged,  and 
described  by  Edward  G.  Kennedy,  with  an  introduction  by  Royal 
Cortissoz.  The  Grolier  Club  of  the  City  of  New  York,  1910. 

Mr.  Whistler's  Lithographs.  The  catalogue  compiled  by  Thomas 
R.  Way.  (Second  edition.)  George  Bell  &  Sons.  London.  H.  Wunder- 
lich  &  Co.  New  York,  1905. 

Four  Masters  of  Etching.  Frederick  Wedmore.  (With  an  original 
etching.)  Fine  Art  Society.  London,  1883. 

The  Gentle  Art  of  Making  Enemies.  William  Heinemann.  London. 
1890.  (Second  edition,  1892.  Third  edition,  1904.) 

The  Art  of  James  McNeill  Whistler.  An  appreciation,  by  T.  R. 
Way  and  G.  R.  Dennis.  (Illustrated.)  George  Bell  and  Sons.  London, 
1903. 

Recollections  and  Impressions  of  James  A.  McNeill  Whistler. 
Arthur  Jerome  Eddy.  (Illustrated.)  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company. 
Philadelphia  and  London,  1903. 

The  Life  of  James  McNeill  Whistler.  E.  R.  and  J.  Pennell.  2  vols. 
(Illustrated.)  William  Heinemann.  London.  J.  B.  Lippincott  Com- 
pany. Philadelphia,  1908. 

With  Whistler  in  Venice.  Otto  H.  Bacher.  (Illustrated.)  The 
Century  Co.  New  York,  1908. 


314  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Writings  by  and  about  James  Abbott  McNeill  Whistler.  A 
bibliography  by  Don  C.  Seitz.  Otto  Schulze  &  Company.  Edinburgh, 
1910.  One  Day  with  Whistler,  by  Frederick  Keppel;  a  booklet. 
Frederick  Keppel  &  Co.,  New  York. 

WILLE,  JOHANN  GEORG  (1715-1808).  Catalogue  de  Jean  Georges  Wille 
graveur  avec  une  notice  biographique.  Charles  Le  Blanc.  Rudolph 
Weigel.  Leipzig,  1847. 

WOOLLETT,  WILLIAM  (1735-1785).  A  catalogue  raisonne  of  the  engraved 
works  of  William  Woollett.  Louis  Fagan.  The  Fine  Art  Society, 
Limited.  London,  1885. 

ZILCKEN,  PHILIP.  (1857 — )  Catalogue  descriptif  des  eaux-fortes 
originales  de  Ph  Zilcken.  A.  Pit.  Paris,  1890. 

ZORN,   ANDERS  L.    (1860 ).     Das  Radierte   werk  des  Anders  Zorn. 

Fortunat  con  Schubert-Soldern.     (Illustrated.)     Ernst  Arnold.     Dres- 
den, 1905. 

Le  Peintre-Graveur  Illustre.    Loys  Delteil.     Vol.  V.    Paris,  1909. 


Q 


